Season best for scintillating Mir, sixth in Austria

A best result since the 2023 Indian Grand Prix, Joan Mir claimed a well-earned sixth place on Sunday to end his run of bad luck as Luca Marini took 13th and extended his run of point scoring finishes.

The weekend’s efforts were rewarded with a solid Sunday for the Honda HRC Castrol team in Austria as both Joan Mir and Luca Marini battled through 28 laps of Spielberg, bringing their Honda RC213V machines home while collecting points and data for the future. Dark clouds kept away in the late stage of the race, the team preparing second bikes for the rain just in case.

Avoiding any major first lap drama, Joan Mir was able to easily stay with the top ten in the opening laps and set himself up for a strong second half of the race. Lapping consistently in the mid 1’30s, Mir saw himself make steady progress and caught Brad Binder and Francesco Bagnaia with five laps to go. An exciting three-way clash would break out between them with Mir getting the better of both the KTM and Ducati riders thanks to perfectly timed moves. Sixth place is Mir’s best result of the year, one better than he went in Aragon and sees him leave Austria with 42 points – now just 13 back on his teammate Marini in the standings. A turning point after a string of dreadful luck in previous rounds.

Luca Marini walked away from the weekend in Austria with another point scoring finish, his tenth from ten race starts. Compromised in the melee into Turn 1, Marini spent most of the race playing catch up and taking the maximum result possible. Battling hard with several riders, the #10 collected good information on several of the new items trialled by the Honda HRC riders this weekend in race conditions. Continuing to make progress throughout the weekend and secure a spot in Q2 remains a crucial target for Marini and his side of the garage.

A straight dash to the all-new Balaton Park is the next challenge for riders and teams as they prepare for round 14 next weekend.