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During the Sprint yesterday, only one Honda reached the finish line, in last position. Mir, Nakagami, and Zarco fell during the race, while Marini managed to see the checkered flag. but almost 23 seconds after a winning Viñales. This was the discouraging picture of the Japanese constructor’s crisis. Just a year ago, they had celebrated their last victory in the MotoGP in Austin.
Complaining is of little use. Now they’ll have to roll up their sleeves, and Joan Mir knows this very well. "I had a fantastic start. At the first lap, I managed to recuperate many positions, and that was good, until turn twelve, where a rider touched me, and destroyed my fairing. I had a hole on the left side, the front wing flew off, and even the rear part was broken," he described the early stages of the Sprint. "The bike couldn’t be ridden, but I didn’t want to stop, and I lost the front. I'm angry at myself, because I didn't want to get into that situation. I was doing what I could to ride safely. I should’ve gone back to the garage. I made a mistake."
The short race gave the rider from Majorca further confirmation of how far he still has to go to narrow the gap from the best.
"We’re very, very far," he admitted. "This is a track where Honda had positive results in the past. Now it has none. Last year, you could brake hard and enter corners fast. We'd asked too much in that area and we'd fall. But now we can't make a difference even at that stage. We're a little lost, because we don't have advantages in any area. I'm very honest."
They have to look ahead. "The positive thing is that we have the concessions, and we have to develop a completely new bike. I know they’re working like never before. This bike can be fixed, but what causes our problems is something big. I don’t know what. We have to start focusing on that," he emphasized, referring to the frame without naming it.
Luca Marini tried to downplay it. "What was good about it? The weather was fantastic and so were the spectators," he said jokingly, before getting serious again.
"We have to work and try to improve for the race, as much as we can." Their only realistic goal. "I think it's positive that Honda won last year, because we have all the data, and we can make comparisons to figure out where we have to work in the coming months. I pushed hard in the sprint, to try to take progress. But I had chattering problems, and it was difficult. We'll try to resolve it."
