Joan Mir was happy with the dash simulation on the ultimate day of the Sepang MotoGP check. At the least till you evaluate it to the perfect Ducati.
Mir put his Honda on the high of the timesheets on the second day with a time assault of 1 minute 56 seconds, and this lap finally moved him to fifth place total on the finish of the three-day journey.
Nevertheless, on the ultimate day, many of the main riders, together with Mir, accomplished dash race simulations, and the variations turned clearer.
“It was good, however in the event you verify the tempo of the Ducati guys, particularly Alex, we’re distant,” Mir admitted.
“I improved in comparison with final 12 months. I used to be capable of run within the 1 minute 58 second vary for many of my runs till the final two or three laps.
“It is not a foul tempo, however I feel Ducati took a step ahead this preseason. They got here out very robust once more.”
Innovative dash simulation, Sepang MotoGP check
If we exclude Mir’s final lap and use the identical 10-lap distance as Ducati, Mir could be 9.096 seconds away from Alex Marquez, which might have been equal to sixth place within the dash race final October.
Gresini’s Marquez, who’s at present operating a factory-spec machine, additionally attracted consideration with an astonishing time of 1 minute 57.295 seconds within the early phases of the dash simulation.
“It is virtually a time assault!” Mir mentioned earlier than explaining why such a lap would not maintain up on a future on a Honda.
“If I can try this lap time, the following lap I shall be underneath 2 minutes 01 seconds as a result of I’ll fully burn out the tires, which is widespread in time assaults.”
Mir, who crashed in a dash final October however recovered to take a podium end on the Grand Prix, described the most recent RC213V as “barely higher in all areas.”
“We have not made any revolutions, however now we have made small advances in lots of areas which have allowed us to enhance little by little and run higher lap instances,” he mentioned. “However we’ve not taken an enormous step ahead in a single space.”
Joan Mir, 2026 Sepang MotoGP Take a look at (Gold & Goose).
“Prime 5, high 4, however no extra.”
When requested concerning the bike’s major weaknesses, the 2020 MotoGP World Champion was clear:
“The one factor we should always deal with a little bit bit extra is grip. When you have extra grip, you possibly can management the spin extra and you will have much less tire drop, in order that’s every thing.”
“On the finish of the day, we could not do a time assault as we speak. We had a little bit little bit of hassle with some elements not working correctly and we needed to adapt a little bit bit that day.
“However from a race tempo standpoint…if we had a race tomorrow, I feel we might combat for high 5, high 4, however not more than that.”
Teammate Luca Marini was the following finest Honda rider, ending the check in thirteenth place total.
The ultimate pre-season check will happen in Buriram on February 21 and 22, after which Honda must choose its closing engine specification for the 2026 season after shifting up from D to C within the concession rankings.
