The Repsol Honda team rider finishes thirteenth in the Catalan Grand Prix and Joan Mir places seventeenth.
The race on the eleventh round of the MotoGP season at the Circuit de Barcelona – Catalunya finally took place without rain and with packed stands. However, a crash involving several riders on the first lap led to a red flag and the distance was reduced to 23 laps.
Marc Márquez made a great start and moved up as high as eighth. He remained in the Top Ten during the first half of the race, but a lack of grip with his tyres that he had suffered throughout the weekend made him lose positions until he crossed the finish line thirteenth, earning 3 points.
Joan Mir was unable to improve his feeling on the bike in the race and was far from the points, finishing in seventeenth position.
This coming weekend the twelfth round of the season will be held at Misano: The San Marino Grand Prix.
MARC MÁRQUEZ – 13th
“First of all, I am very glad that Pecco and all of the other riders avoided any serious injury. I saw Pecco crash on the opening lap and I immediately did everything I could to make sure I could avoid him. In the race restart I was able to gain a few positions. Then, like yesterday I was very strong at the start but then had to go into a more conservative mode in the second half of the race. In the final races I was focusing on getting the bike home. Now we start thinking about Misano.”
JOAN MIR – 17th
“Honestly, I made a good start to the first race and I made up a fair few positions. But unfortunately, the rest of our race was similar to the day before and we struggled for grip. After six or seven laps the tyre dropped a lot and I was worked to finish the race and stay on the bike. I used the time to try some different maps on the bike with this time to see if it changed anything. Avoiding a crash was important and we finished the last laps carefully to head to Misano in as positive a way as possible.”
