Honda HRC Castrol are back – Austrian GP restarts the year

The three-week summer break has come and gone, Luca Marini and Joan Mir returning eager to attack the second half of the season. A unique challenge in the Red Bull Ring presents as a first chance to blow the cobwebs away.

Spielberg will host the MotoGP’s much anticipated return and kickstart an intense end to the year with five sets of back-to-back races seeing out 2025. At just 4.35 kilometres long with 11 corners, the Austrian track is one of the simplest on paper, but the heavy braking and hard acceleration makes it a complicated circuit to master. The unique layout has produced some titanic clashes in the past and after three weeks without action, no doubt the MotoGP grid will be fired up.

Luca Marini arrives looking to match his results from earlier in the year and close the distance to the top ten in the World Championship standings. The Italian remains the only rider on the grid to have scored points in every Grand Prix he has entered in the 2025 season. Plenty of speed for the #10 to show in Austria after more time to recover and rebuild his fitness during the break.

For Joan Mir on the other side of the Honda HRC Castrol garage has the potential to show his top-ten speed once again. Able to consistently challenge the front two rows in Brno before misfortune hit, Mir and the Honda RC213V are due a solid result. Second in Spielberg in 2020 and 2021, the stop and go nature has suited the #36 well in the past.

From Austria it will be a straight dash to the new Hungarian GP at Balaton Park, which appears to be a tight and technical track.