Portugal, March 20, 2024: The World Championship heads for the first European race of the year with the Autodromo Internacional do Algarve holding the honors of hosting round two.
An intense opening weekend of MotoGP action returned a plethora of data and findings for the Repsol Honda Team and HRC engineers to analyze in the time between races. This data will be put to the test in Portimao, the 4.59-kilometer-long circuit, known for its dramatic elevation changes, a world apart from the relatively flat Lusail International Circuit. The Repsol Honda Team claimed pole for the 2023 Portuguese GP with Marc Marquez and is ready to face stiff competition again this year.
Joan Mir rates the Portuguese track as one of his favorites on the calendar and is positive of further improvements coming. The 26-year-old Mallorcan was buoyed by a steady weekend in Qatar where he and the team were able to make consistent improvements and author two satisfactory races to open the year. In 2023, on his Repsol Honda Team debut, Mir scored a steady 11th-place finish in the Portuguese GP.
Round two offers Luca Marini another opportunity to continue working on his Honda RC213V after a complicated first race weekend. Pre-season testing showed that there is still more to come from the young Italian and the team and like his teammate, the change of scenery is set to provide further motivation. Improving his feeling on the Repsol Honda Team RC213V remains Marini’s primary focus.
The action begins on Friday at 10:45 Local Time with Free Practice 1 with the 12-lap Sprint scheduled for 15:00 Local Time on Saturday. Then all attention turns to the Portuguese Grand Prix, 25 laps on Sunday at 14:00 Local Time.
Joan Mir
“I am looking forward to getting back on the bike and continuing the job we started in Qatar. There’s a lot of work to do, but after starting well at a track that is not the best for us, I am confident that we can do more in Portugal. It’s a track that I enjoy and I think we have more potential there. Ready to work, ready to make progress, and ready to have another positive weekend on the Honda RC213V.”
Luca Marini
“The best thing we can do at the moment is keep riding, so of course it’s great to be heading to Portugal and Portimao. It’s a track that is very different from where we started the year so I am curious to see how the Honda goes there. We’re in the process of developing the bike, working with Honda, and gathering information at different tracks to improve. Our objective is to find a better feeling with the bike to be more competitive.”