Joan Mir

Buriram MotoGP Post-Race Subscriber Notes: And Then There Were Two

By David Emmett |

And then there were two. With both Marc Márquez and Enea Bastianini finishing outside the top ten Sunday's Grand Prix of Thailand at Buriram, and Pecco Bagnaia storming to a superb win ahead of Jorge Martin, the 2024 MotoGP championship became a mathematical impossibility for Márquez and Bastianini. The title will be decided between Jorge Martin and Pecco Bagnaia.

Sunday's race was a textbook example of exactly why Martin and Bagnaia are left. In extraordinarily difficult conditions, Pecco Bagnaia rode a near-perfect race to take victory, while Jorge Martin got his excess of enthusiasm under control after a couple of tricky moments and did exactly what he needed to if he is to win this championship: finish second behind Pecco Bagnaia.

Mandalika MotoGP Friday Round Up: Ducati Assert Their Dominance, Hope Grows For Honda And Yamaha

By David Emmett |

The start of the Asia-Pacific MotoGP tour is supposed to throw up surprises. When MotoGP arrives at tracks that the teams and factories don't know as well, the field should be leveled. The established order should be shaken up, and outsiders get a look in.

At the end of the first day of the Indonesian Grand Prix at the Mandalika International Circuit, the first of MotoGP's so-called flyaways (though that depends on where you depart from), the fastest four bikes are the four Ducati Desmosedici GP24s, the dominant machine of the 2024 season. A Ducati GP23 is in fifth, with two more GP23s in the top ten. Only Alex Márquez, who crashed trying to set a fast lap, languishes outside the top ten.

Normal order very much restored, then. Enea Bastianini just edged out Jorge Martin by four hundredths of a second, after Martin became the first rider to smash the lap record. Franco Morbidelli took a solid third on the second Pramac Ducati, while Bastianini's Ducati Lenovo teammate Pecco Bagnaia fired in a last desperate fast lap to take fourth.

Busy Two Days Of Testing At Misano Earlier This Week

By David Emmett |

It has been a busy week for the Misano World Circuit. A wide selection of riders from the MotoGP paddock were on track on Tuesday and Wednesday, on a variety of machines. There were test riders, MotoGP riders, and Moto2 riders, some testing and some training ready for the race here in two weeks time.

Four MotoGP manufacturers were present. KTM had test rider Dani Pedrosa, while Ducati had Michele Pirro. For Yamaha, Monster Energy riders Fabio Quartararo and Alex Rins were present, along with temporary test rider Andrea Dovizioso. Dovizioso had been brought in to replace Yamaha's official test rider Cal Crutchlow, who is still recovering from complications to a hand injury. For HRC, Repsol Honda riders Luca Marini and Joan Mir attended on Wednesday, with a long list of things to test.

Joan Mir To Extends Contract With Honda Through 2026

By David Emmett |

Joan Mir is to remain with the factory Honda team for the next two seasons. The 2020 world champion will be riding for Honda in 2025 and 2026, until the end of the current technical regulations.

The signing was not unexpected. For the last couple of races, Mir has been telling reporters that to leave HRC at the end of this year would feel like a defeat. He had joined Honda with aspirations of helping to make the bike competitive again, and that had not yet succeeded. 

Mir also had very few other options. Without good results to show, finding a more competitive ride was difficult. And without a competitive bike, scoring competitive results was also difficult.

Silly Season Round Up: Mir To Stay With Honda, Seats Filling Rapidly, WorldSBK Moves

By David Emmett |

With Marc Marquez slotting into the second factory Ducati seat, prompting Jorge Martin to leave for the factory Aprilia squad, the other pieces of the MotoGP rider puzzle are starting to fall into place. With Assen now just under two weeks away, the rider market is starting to move.

Motorsport.com's Germán Garcia Casanova brings news of one of the most surprising moves on the market. Motorsport is reporting that Joan Mir is set to sign a new two-year deal with Repsol Honda. This is rather unexpected, as Mir has suffered a difficult first part of the season, and has been open in his criticism of HRC and the current iteration of the Honda RC213V. There were even credible rumors that the 2020 MotoGP champion was pondering retirement.

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