A Friday of positives for the Honda HRC Castrol team as the Grand Prix of Czechia began, Joan Mir leading the Honda charge in seventh place and earning a spot in Q2 while Luca Marini hunts the final tenths needed to join him.
Czechia Grand Prix - Friday Practice |
MotoGP 2026 |
Round 9 |
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Friday, 19th June 2026
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Czech Grand Prix, Automotodrom Brno
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Mir makes Q2 cut despite crash in Brno
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A Friday of positives for the Honda HRC Castrol team as the Grand Prix of Czechia began, Joan Mir leading the Honda charge in seventh place and earning a spot in Q2 while Luca Marini hunts the final tenths needed to join him.
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The European Summer was out in full force at the Automotodrom Brno, ambient conditions pushing into the 30s as the track temperature approached 50°C. This saw the lap times tumble and the lap record pushed further and further, both Honda HRC Castrol riders keeping the pace and consistently threatening the top ten.
Joan Mir resumed his love affair with the Czechia circuit, finishing the morning session in fourth and improving his lap time by 1.3 seconds in the afternoon. Ending the day comfortably in seventh place overall, Mir will advance directly into Q2 despite a fall on his final lap of the afternoon. Looking at both his one lap and race pace, the #36 is surely set to feature prominently throughout the remainder of the weekend. The cooler conditions of Saturday morning’s Q2 session should be ideal for Mir and the Honda RC213V to make another step and fight to replicate his fifth place on the grid from 2025.
Pleased with his pace on long runs, Luca Marini continues to look for something more with the soft tyre and one-lap speed. 13th at the close of Friday, the Italian was under 0.1s from the top ten as fractions of a tenth of a second separated much of the field. Overnight work will focus on improving Marini’s feeling with the Honda on the soft tyre as he aims to conquer Q1.
As always, Saturday will be an action packed day with Q1 and Q2 setting the grid for what is sure to be an exciting 10-lap Sprint at 15:00 Local Time.
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Joan Mir 36
Honda HRC Castrol
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“A good day today despite the last little fall. I am pleased with how fast we have been able to be but that little crash was quite frustrating because it was just in the gravel! I spent the whole day riding alone, so it wasn’t like our speed was from one lap following, also our race pace is looking good. Let’s see what tomorrow brings but I am really enjoying riding the Honda here in Brno, a track I have always liked.”
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Luca Marini 10
Honda HRC Castrol
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“The tyres are working well, as you can see from the lap times already! Perfect conditions today and I am sure tomorrow morning with a little bit less temperature we will see another drop in the times. Our pace on the medium rear is quite good but still we need to find a way to improve more with the soft, we are improving by a second, but the others have something else. Some areas to work on overnight, but I think we can improve more after looking at the data. The gap is close like always so a few changes and we can be even more competitive.”
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