Marco Bezzecchi
Joan Mir was one of the standout riders on the first day of the 2025 MotoGP season at the Thailand Grand Prix. Mir sailed into Q2 with the sixth-fastest time on his Honda bike.
His time of a 1:29.398 was within four-tenths of what pacesetter Alex Marquez managed on a Ducati GP23. In further encouragement for Honda, LCR’s Johann Zarco took 10th place.
Luca Marini was down in 16th place, while rookie Somkiat Chantra was 21st and slowest of the full-time riders – perhaps an expected outcome. Honda only made five Q2 appearances during the 2024 season.
Zarco was responsible for all of those, with Mir, Marini and former rider Takaaki Nakagami missing out. There was cautious optimism at Asaka after the team showed positive signs in pre-season testing, and they justified it on Friday.
Mir and Marini combined for just 35 points last season, leaving Honda bottom of the teams’ championship. But the Spaniard’s demeanour has noticeably changed during the off-season.
During testing, Mir was second-fastest in the Sprint configuration behind Marco Bezzecchi. Crucially, that suggests he can be competitive on higher fuel too, although Honda’s rivals may have made progress in the last fortnight.
Sylvain Guintoli loves what he noticed Joan Mir doing during Thailand Grand Prix practice
Speaking during practice at the Thailand Grand Prix, Sylvain Guintol, marvelled at Honda’s progress. Mir grabbed his attention even before he set his headline lap time.
Guintoli noticed the 2020 world champion catching world championship favourite Marc Marquez at one point in the session. Marquez had just fitted a new tyre, so wasn’t pushing flat-out, but the TNT Sports pundit still had to do a double take when he saw it happening.
Last season, the Ducati would likely have left the RC16 behind, even without unleashing its full speed. Honda are the most successful manufacturer on the MotoGP grid, but it’s been more than five years since their last title with Marquez.
Marquez is also responsible for their most recent podium finish – third at the 2023 Japanese GP – and their last victory in Emilia Romagna (2021).
Guintoli said: “It was great. For a lap there, Marc Marquez switched to the hard front tyre, he obviously took a bit easy in the first lap doing a high 1:30. Marini was catching him. I was like ‘what?’. The Honda catching a Ducati – we’ve not seen that forever!”
Joan Mir may prove Neil Hodgson right after two-word prediction for 2025 MotoGP season
Mir and Marini disagreed over the Honda bike back in Sepang. The former expressed optimism that they were ‘much closer’ to their competitors, while the latter suggested the gap had remained the same.
As it stands, it looks like Mir was right. He’s trying to re-establish himself as the lead Honda rider this term after losing out to Zarco in 2024.
Neil Hodgson picked Mir to be ‘the surprise’ when he looked ahead to the new season. And that prediction is already shaping up well.
Mir’s best-ever finish in Thailand came in 2019, when he took seventh place. Perhaps that’s a realistic target for this weekend.
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