There’s no getting away from the fact that it’s been a very difficult few years for Honda in MotoGP. But Buriram’s campaign opener – coupled with pre-season testing results – showed that a bright light is forming at the end of the tunnel for the Japanese giants.
The notes that were sung during the Sepang and Buriram tests were positive from all corners of the HRC camp. Progress was clearly being made, with Joan Mir (Honda HRC Castrol) going as far as saying that Day 1 in Malaysia was the best day of testing he’s had since he made the switch at the end of 2022.
Those upbeat pre-season hymn sheets were being belted out again following Mir’s P6 in Practice, and paired with Johann Zarco’s (Castrol Honda LCR) P10, it consolidated HRC’s performance gains over the winter. Two Hondas gaining automatic Q2 entry was unheard of in 2024, so to have two straight in at the first time of asking in 2025 shows serious strides forward have been made.
Come Sunday, Zarco acted as HRC’s top finisher in the Grand Prix with a P7 to his name, and this signalled Honda’s best result since Marc Marquez pocketed P6 in the 2023 Thai GP. It was also the two-time Moto2 World Champion’s best result with Honda so far, and the Frenchman described his seventh place as “more than enough”.
“A pretty good way to start the season and a tough race. The first 10 laps were maybe the most difficult for me, and then I told myself, ‘Try to be patient, you have the medium rear tyre’, that I know I can handle it well, and the other riders who have the soft rear, maybe they’ll drop,” explained the #5.
“When their rear grip began to drop I got some air and I could control the race a bit more, overtake, and then when you get the advantage you can overtake the riders and not have anyone in front of you, you get fresh air because it was so hot today and go faster. I thought of getting Bez at the end but it was too on the limit. I accepted seventh position and it was more than enough for today.”
Adding Zarco’s healthy points tally to Mir’s first dry Tissot Sprint point on Saturday, plus Luca Marini (Honda HRC Castrol) also picking up points with a Sunday P12, it was just rookie Somkiat Chantra (Idemitsu Honda LCR) who didn’t collect any points from the Honda quartet in Thailand. But the history-making Thai star, who also had the weight of a nation on his shoulders in Buriram, finished just five seconds away from the points in Sunday’s Grand Prix. It was by no means a disappointing weekend for HRC’s newest recruit – far from it.
Mir, like Zarco, was looking good for a top 10 in the Grand Prix before a Turn 12 crash saw the 2020 MotoGP World Champion’s hopes of a Sprint and Grand Prix double top 10 vanish. Post-race, Mir admitted that it was his mistake, but that didn’t stop the Spaniard from leaving Thailand with plenty of positive energy for the season ahead.
“I'm happy because I think that we made a good weekend. I think that we were doing a great race. Coming from the back, I had a touch with Bezzecchi in Turn 4 in the first lap. He overtook in the easy way, and I had to go out of the track. And then I had to recover all those positions. A bit of a shame, because I think today, I think we could make a good job, is my impression,” said Mir to the media on Sunday evening.
“I think today, maybe we would be able to be very close to the top five with the pace that we were showing. And this is something that last year I was not able to say to you in any race. So it means that we are on the way. We are on the way. I think that this is the worst scenario that we can have in terms of temperatures and this kind of thing, and we were strong. So I'm happy.”
On the other side of the factory box, Marini was also pleased with how the weekend in Buriram unravelled.
“More will come; we have been able to make a really good step since we were last here – just a few months ago. At the start I made a mistake with the start procedure because I arrived late and was rushing, but then I put together a really good race to come from last at the first corner to 12th,” explained the Italian.
“Without this we could have been up there with Mir and Zarco, fighting inside the top 10. I am happy with what we have done, and I know more will come as the season progresses.”
Next up: a trip back to Termas de Rio Hondo. Argentina presents a fresh challenge compared to the hundreds of laps the MotoGP riders have clocked in Buriram and Sepang over the last month, so Honda’s collective will be eager to see if their journey back to the north of MotoGP’s pecking order continues when we go racing in South America.