Consistent through change – Mir on the pace in Portugal as Marini narrowly misses out

Shifting weather throughout the day kept the Honda HRC Castrol team on their toes, but Joan Mir emerged as the fifth fastest rider while Luca Marini just missed the Q2 cut off as he recovered from an early fall.

A day of dark clouds commenced round 21 of the MotoGP World Championship, weather radars and upward glances were the order of the day. With the conditions ready to change at a moment’s notice, the Honda HRC Castrol squad were keen to get to work and capitalise on the best of the track conditions at each and every moment.

Continuing to brim with confidence after two podiums, Joan Mir made himself a key fixture in the top ten once more. Eighth in the morning, the 2020 MotoGP World Champion would improve his time by over a second in the afternoon to seal fifth overall on Friday. Comfortably into Q2, Mir was able to exploit his impressive feeling with the Honda RC213V and show the pace to fight for the front two rows of the grid. With the bike setup already able to contest the top five, Mir and his team will focus on minor improvements overnight as they target a strong qualifying to line up a competitive pair of races.

Seventh in the morning, a fall early in the afternoon left Marini with just a single bike when the first shootout of the weekend began. Making an impressive improvement after a brief sprinkling of rain, the #10 would be pushed out of the top ten in the final moments. Eleventh overall and just a tenth off Q2, Marini and his team already have some ideas on how to improve and fight for the top spots in Q1 on Saturday.

The 12-lap Sprint is schedule for 15:00 Local Time on Saturday, November 08 with reasonable conditions forecast.