Factory Honda Motogue rider Joanne Mir feels this speed is coming, so he says he was fourth fastest in Friday’s MotoGP practice at the Aragon Grand Prix.
Honda has so far won the 2025 MotoGP season, with LCR Johann Zarco winning the Wet French Grand Prix, finishing second in the UK Grand Prix two weeks ago.
Although he displays a flash of speed in the first seven rounds, 2020 world champion Joan Mir only has 18 points in his credits in a campaign littered with crashes.
However, in Aragon on Friday, Mir set sail directly to the quarterly location, with the same lap time as third-placed Maverick Vinall and the major Honda in fourth overall.
The result is eye-catching, but Mir says, “No surprise.” Because he feels this is possible in the last few rounds and thinks the top five are realistic in the race.
“It’s true that what you see on TV is just the outcome,” he began.
“But it’s not necessarily something like this. I think in the last few races we were very close to doing this result, but for some reason we couldn’t put it together.
“Today we have a bit of improved grip on the rear of the bike, which was enough to get results.
“So it’s not just a coincidence, it’s not a surprise, it’s something we’ve been working on for a long time.
“And that’s what I said yesterday. I feel now that I have every bit of the puzzle I need to put together.
“So, let’s go on like this and maximize what we have and make sure we get good results tomorrow and Sunday. The top five are realistic.”
Mir added that he “sacrificed” the brake ability “sacrificed” to improve the corner excit form, but the benefits you get from finding the rear grip mean you don’t have to push it that much into the turn.
“I said all year round it feels really good to brake and get into the corner, but when you start opening the throttle, that’s a point you lose compared to others,” he explained.
“Today we improved that point, and I probably felt it in that respect, so we sacrificed a bit of the brakes.
“So I got a bit of a good grip, so I wasn’t exaggerating much to braking. So that was enough to give me good results today.”
Mir admits that Aragon’s low grip nature makes it difficult to know whether Honda has improved the real traction or not so much, but he believes there is a “fighting” package.
“That’s always a mystery because if you have a bike that generates grips, if you don’t have a grip on your truck, you think you need more grips than the others,” he said.
“But if you come to a truck where you really have grips on a slippery track and the grip is a disaster, you don’t have much trouble, you don’t understand what’s going on.
“It’s a bit of what’s going on right now.
“I don’t have a real answer, but the truth is to handle it and put the brakes on. We’re very close to having a package to fight. We’re missing the grip. We’ll improve it.”