Honda HRC Castrol head north for Assen

Words and images courtesy of Honda Racing

The pace of MotoGP continues to quicken. Joan Mir is joined by Aleix Espargaro in the Honda HRC Castrol team this weekend in the Netherlands. Both have clear objectives for the Dutch TT.

History is what the Dutch TT is all about. Hosting Grand Prix motorcycling since 1949, the 4.54-kilometre-long circuit holds a special place in MotoGP history. It was modified between 2005 and 2006, yet the track maintains many of its old charms. It has produced battles for the ages almost every year.

Fresh from a third consecutive point-scoring Grand Prix, Joan Mir arrives with a sense of stability after an up and down start to the season. Consistency and upgrades throughout have helped. The #36 is now a constant threat to the top ten each weekend. The mix of long, slow corners in the opening section of the Assen lap and the high-speed manoeuvring during the middle section will be an important testing ground for the Honda RC213V.

Aleix Espargaro will take the helm of the second Honda RC213V in the Honda HRC Castrol garage. This will be his third appearance of the year. With a podium in 2023 at the Dutch track, Espargaro has historic success to draw upon. This gives him confidence as he returns. As with Nakagami in Mugello, the #41’s primary focus will be on extracting the maximum from the weekend. This is rather than focusing purely on assessing new pieces as with the Test Team.

Joan Mir

“Another weekend, another race! Only a short time to rest between races but I am ready to go again. Assen will present us with some challenges again, but in Mugello we saw that through hard work we made some progress, so I am approaching the weekend with an open mind. Like in Mugello, we can normally see a lot of close battles in Assen with big groups so we have to be smart with how we are preparing everything. Let’s keep the focus and keep working for the future.”

Aleix Espargaro

“I am really delighted to be able to help Honda HRC and work with the factory team this weekend in Assen. Lots of riders dream of being in the factory Honda team; to be able to do this now is a real surprise and pleasure – even if it is temporary. In both previous weekends this year for me I’ve been able to build more and more, so I hope we can start the weekend a little closer. I have good memories at Assen and it will be very interesting to see the Honda there, it’s quite different to the tracks I am normally testing at. I hope Luca is recovering well and he can be back here soon.”