Dual Honda crash milestones in Malaysian MotoGP Sprint but “no big regrets”

For the first time in 2025, the factory Honda MotoGP team suffered a double DNF in the Malaysian Sprint, but for Joan Mir there were “no big regrets” about the result.

For Mir, it was a crash at turn nine out of fourth place, and one which marked his 45th DNF – Sprints and grands prix combined – as a Honda rider in just under just under three seasons. This number doesn’t take into account the six Sprints and five grands prix he’s withdrawn from or been declared unfit for.

However, the result of the Sepang race was not something to put a negative spin on what the Spanish rider saw overall as a positive day for himself and Honda.

“No big regrets,” Joan Mir told MotoGP.com after his crash in the Sepang Sprint.

“We were fighting for something valuable that I guess that I was smelling the podium all the laps that I did.

“Even when it was time to push and open a gap with the others, we were able to be strong, that is the first part of the Sprint race is always very hard.”

Explaining his crash, Mir said he entered turn nine with “more margin” than normal.

“Then I was expecting a drop from the tyres, as we could see the last five or four laps would be probably the key of that Sprint race – and [it was],” he said.

“I was expecting that drop, just probably going into the corner with a bit more margin, I unloaded the front a bit more than what I should and I lost the front.

“It was completely my mistake, I apologise to the team because I’m sorry. I wanted to finish in a different way.

“But tomorrow we will try again, we will see if we can manage the tyres and if we can be as competitive as today.

“I feel good riding this bike. It’s true that we have some problems that need to be solved already, but we are on it.”

Marini entered “too slowly” in Espargaro crash

If Joan Mir’s crash statistics at Honda are especially high, his Honda HRC Castrol teammate’s stand out for the opposite reason.

In 2024, Luca Marini racked up a total of four crashes; in 2025, the fall in the Sepang Sprint was his first of the season in MotoGP.

The Italian crashed while trying to pass Pol Espargaro on the inside at the penultimate corner, but misjudged the move slightly which meant Espargaro had no way to avoid contact.

“I just saw Pol [Espargaro] went a little bit wide and I said ‘I try to go in’,” Marini explained.

“But I went in too slowly. Just not enough speed so he didn’t see me, so he just made his own trajectory, his own line, and I was there so we touched and I crashed.

“But it’s something that can happen.”

Marini said his move was necessary to make at that moment because he was struggling in the hot air of Espargaro’s KTM.

“It was important to try on Pol in that moment because I was struggling too much, the race was too difficult for us,” he said.

“As soon as the pressure and the temperature of the front tyre raise up it becomes everything too difficult for us: we cannot brake, we cannot entry fast in the corners, there is no turning.

“So, it’s a problem for everybody for sure, but we struggle more.

“It’s a pity because we had the pace for fighting for the podium, but starting from so behind it’s impossible now at the moment.”