– MotoGP rookie Diogo Moreira from the LCR team was the best Honda rider at MotorLand Aragon. In the sprint, the 22-year-old finished seventh and in the Grand Prix ninth, after losing a position to Enea Bastianini (Tech3-KTM) in the last lap. The Honda factory team did not manage to get into the top 10 in either race.
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Nevertheless, Moreira also struggled with a fundamental problem of the RC213V on this track: “It’s basically always the same. We lose a lot of grip when leaning. That’s why it’s difficult to find something in these long corners.”
“I was able to improve at the corner entry. But in this phase at the corner exit, we are still at the same point,” says the Brazilian. Still, he was able to fight in the chasing group.
“Yes, I enjoyed it,” he says about the numerous duels. “I really had a lot of fun. At the beginning it was difficult because we know that the medium tire is hard to get up to temperature.”
“At Honda, it’s also a bit more difficult for us. But I think we managed the race well. Towards the end, I tried to fight with Enea. Only in the last lap did I make a mistake in the last sector.”
“Our problem ultimately lies in the middle of the corner. That’s probably also why I fell back a bit towards the end of the race. But I think we improved over the course of the weekend.”
His LCR teammate Johann Zarco was also able to make an impression in his comeback after a long injury break. On Friday, the veteran qualified directly for Q2 and scored a world championship point as ninth in the sprint.
In the Grand Prix, Zarco lost a lot of ground due to two long-lap penalties he received for the starting accident in Barcelona. Therefore, he only finished 15th on Sunday but was just one second behind Luca Marini.
Marini: Crash in sprint, 14th in Grand Prix
This showed that the Honda factory team had significantly bigger problems. Marini crashed already in the first lap of the sprint in turn 6: “I crashed alone. It was a pretty hard crash, and I have some pain.”
Although the Italian only finished 14th in the Grand Prix, he takes something positive from the race: “That was the most important thing: I was able to run the race without too many problems.”
“Apart from that, there is also something positive: We worked well on the setup. We found a bit more potential for qualifying. But I wasn’t good enough in qualifying to use it. That was my mistake.”
And what does Marini say about Moreira’s strong performance? “I think Zarco was also exceptional. Diogo had a great weekend, but I can’t say more about that.”
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“They ride very well, they have a lot of grip on the rear wheel and use it well in the corners. They just ride very well.” However, this was exactly what the two factory riders did not manage in Aragon.
Mir worries: “Slower than last year”
Joan Mir also had difficulties. “The reality is that expectations were a bit higher. I expected to have a better feeling for the bike,” says the former world champion.
“The setup we had in Silverstone, we used here, or at least a similar one. But that was not the right direction. I couldn’t brake the bike properly. In Silverstone, the grip was very high, here it is extremely low.”
“Braking is actually my strength. But I can’t approach the corner properly. I always go wide, and the more I try, the wider I go.”
“If you can’t push 100% here, you have no chance to get anything more out of it.” Mir started from 15th on the grid, Marini started behind him in 18th. That was a difficult starting position.
In the sprint, Mir finished the first lap only second to last. “Enea touched me in turn 3, and because of that I had to go wide. I went into the runoff area,” Mir names the reason for his setback.
The race stewards did not investigate this incident. Mir finished the sprint in 16th and estimated that he had the pace for the top 7. But this result was also out of reach in the Grand Prix.
Mir finished twelfth, three seconds and three places behind Moreira. “The lack of performance we had this weekend was not surprising.”
“What worries me personally,” says Mir, “is that I was more than ten seconds slower than last year. That worries me a bit because we have to understand why I had such big problems this weekend.”
“That mainly concerned braking the bike. If we don’t have this strength, I lose my advantage over the others. If I can’t make a difference when braking, I have problems in all areas. That roughly sums up what happened this weekend.”
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