Joan Mir has to “avoid incidents” to reap benefits of Honda’s Friday MotoGP pace

Factory Honda MotoGP rider Joan Mir says he has to “avoid incidents” to capitalise on the RC213V’s ability to start weekends strong at the Japanese Grand Prix.

The 2020 world champion suffered another incident-hit weekend last time out at the San Marino Grand Prix, with a crash in Practice ruling him out of sprint action.

He then didn’t complete the first lap of the grand prix due to a tangle with LCR Honda stablemate Johann Zarco, bringing his total number of non-scores this season across sprints and main races to 15.

But Honda maintained its upward trend at Misano, with Luca Marini seventh in the grand prix having finished eighth the week before in Barcelona and fifth at Balaton Park.

And Joan Mir believes the strengths of the updated Honda will allow the marque to be competitive on home soil this weekend at Motegi.

“It’s always a really busy weekend in Motegi on and off the track, you really feel like a Honda HRC factory rider here,” he said.

“Motegi is a circuit I enjoy and I think it should suit where our bike is strong at the moment.

“The injury in Misano, the crash on Sunday, it was disappointing and stopped us from showing the potential we have.

“As at other races, we need to be strong from Friday and avoid incidents.

“I think you can see the improvements the engineers have made with how both myself and Luca are able to be fast on Friday, we need to keep this line and improve in a few more areas.”

As well as its four full-time riders, Honda tester Takaaki Nakagami will make a wildcard appearance in Japan this weekend.

Nakagami recently returned to testing duties having been sidelined with injury during the summer.

Japanese GP about giving back to HRC and fans for Luca Marini

Looking to continue is recent run of strong results, Luca Marini views this weekend’s Japanese Grand Prix as an opportunity to plan for the future with HRC as well as showing the brand what it has already achieved.

“We arrive at Honda’s home in a really good moment; I am looking forward to riding in front of all of the Japanese fans there who have really adopted me even more since joining Honda,” he said.

“A good point about the Japanese GP is we get to meet with many of the staff based in the HRC offices in Japan, speak with them, make plans and also show them what their hard work has helped to achieve.

“Sometimes in Motegi the weather can change a lot but the forecast is looking quite warm. Let’s enjoy with our home fans.”