Repsol Honda Team pair focus on themselves and Saturday improvements in Barcelona
Friday in Barcelona saw Marc Marquez and Joan Mir work on their preparations for the weekend’s pair of races, the duo focusing on themselves as opposed to the rest of the field’s activities.
A tricky first day at home for both Repsol Honda Team riders as they continued to work on assessing the aerodynamics upgrade introduced last race. For Marc Marquez, this meant riding with the older package and then the new version in back-to-back runs to compare. The eight-time World Champion suffered a fall without consequence at Turn Five during the morning session. He would go on to finish the day in 19th with a best time of 1’40.249.
Joan Mir, who turned 26 today, finished the afternoon session in 22nd place just behind his teammate. His Friday was focused on finding a setup to best improve his feeling, especially when pushing for a single flying lap. Cooler predicted temperatures for Saturday are offering the double World Champion some hope of improvements.
Heavy downpours had been forecast ahead of the weekend, but it looks set to stay dry in the immediate future. Action resumes at 10:10 Local Time before the Sprint race begins at 15:00 Local Time in the afternoon.
Marc Marquez
“Today was about focusing on ourselves, I didn’t feel bad on the bike. In the morning I made the same mistake as in Austria when I was comparing the new parts, especially with aerodynamics the bike changes a lot. In the afternoon we worked on our base and our pace, I feel good but we are far from the top. Tomorrow the objective is to achieve our best and keep working.”
Joan Mir
“We were expecting it to be difficult this weekend because Montmelo is a circuit that’s always very critical for grip, the corners are very long and you need to manage the spin with the throttle. This year, this is the area we have been working on the most so we have to keep working on that here as well. I spent the day working on the setup of the bike. The goal for tomorrow is to improve the feeling so we can push more.”
Friday Practice - Catalan Grand Prix
| Pos. | Rider | Num | Nation | Team | Constructor | Time/Gap |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Espargaro Aleix | 41 | SPA | Aprilia Racing | Aprilia | 1'38.686 |
| 2 | Vinales Maverick | 12 | SPA | Aprilia Racing | Aprilia | 0.362 |
| 3 | Bagnaia Francesco | 1 | ITA | Ducati Lenovo Team | Ducati | 0.375 |
| 4 | Zarco Johann | 5 | FRA | Pramac Racing | Ducati | 0.571 |
| 5 | Binder Brad | 33 | RSA | Red Bull KTM Factory Racing | KTM | 0.660 |
| 6 | Marquez Alex | 73 | SPA | Team Gresini Racing MotoGP | Ducati | 0.863 |
| 7 | Bezzecchi Marco | 72 | ITA | Mooney VR46 Racing Team | Ducati | 0.864 |
| 8 | Di Giannantonio Fabio | 49 | ITA | Team Gresini Racing MotoGP | Ducati | 0.935 |
| 9 | Bastianini Enea | 23 | ITA | Ducati Lenovo Team | Ducati | 0.942 |
| 10 | Martin Jorge | 89 | SPA | Pramac Racing | Ducati | 1.007 |
| 11 | Espargaro Pol | 44 | SPA | Tech3 GASGAS Factory Racing | KTM | 1.035 |
| 12 | Miller Jack | 43 | AUS | Red Bull KTM Factory Racing | KTM | 1.066 |
| 13 | Fernandez Raul | 25 | SPA | RNF MotoGP Team | Aprilia | 1.071 |
| 14 | Oliveira Miguel | 88 | POR | RNF MotoGP Team | Aprilia | 1.093 |
| 15 | Marini Luca | 10 | ITA | Mooney VR46 Racing Team | Ducati | 1.121 |
| 16 | Fernandez Augusto | 37 | SPA | Tech3 GASGAS Factory Racing | KTM | 1.205 |
| 17 | Quartararo Fabio | 20 | FRA | Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP | Yamaha | 1.420 |
| 18 | Morbidelli Franco | 21 | ITA | Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP | Yamaha | 1.469 |
| 19 | Marquez Marc | 93 | SPA | Repsol Honda Team | Honda | 1.563 |
| 20 | Nakagami Takaaki | 30 | JPN | LCR Honda | Honda | 2.200 |
| 21 | Lecuona Iker | 27 | SPA | LCR Honda | Honda | 2.209 |
| 22 | Mir Joan | 36 | SPA | Repsol Honda Team | Honda | 2.327 |
Location Information
In 1989, through the joint collaboration of the Catalan Autonomous Government, the Montmeló Town Council and the Royal Automobile Club of Catalunya (RACC), work began on giving one of Europe’s most beautiful cities a state of the art race track to match. The Circuit de Catalunya opened on the doorstep… read more.
| Length | 4.627 kilometres / 2.875 miles |
| Width | 12 metres |
| Left corners | 5 |
| Right corners | 8 |
| Longest straight | 1.047 kilometres / 0.651 miles |
| Constructed | 1991 |
| Modified | 2018 |
Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, Montmeló, Catalunya, Spain - View in Google Maps
Records
| Pole Position | 1m38.639s (169.9km/h) Francesco Bagnaia (Ducati, 2023) |
| Race Lap | 1m39.939 (167.7km/h) Johann Zarco (Ducati, 2021) |
| Race Time | 40'21.749 (166.1km/h) Miguel Oliveira (KTM, 2021) |
| 2023 Sprint Winner | Aleix Espargaro (Aprilia) |
| 2023 Race Winner | Aleix Espargaro (Aprilia) |
