Honda has already accumulated 20 grand prix without winning (since November 17, 2019, in Valencia), one of the longest droughts since its arrival in the world championship. Despite the fact that the winged brand closed one of its worst weekends in a long time at the Italian Grand Prix, the brand’s best driver was Pol Espargaró , who finished 12th, the HRC Team Manager, Alberto Puig , remains confident in that “we will return to our correct level in the short term”.
“Italy has been a very sad weekend, it’s always bad when something like this happens. We are very sorry for the loss of Jason Dupasquier , we wish him to rest in peace and continue in the memory of people throughout the paddock. Our deepest condolences to his family, friends and his team”, Puig begins the usual analysis after the great prizes.
Coming into sporting matters, the former rider admits that Mugello was a weekend to forget as far as Honda is concerned.
“Clearly, it hasn’t been the best weekend for us again. We knew that Mugello was not going to be easy, but we have not been as competitive as we would have liked”, he points out.
“I think the positive story is the lap Marc Márquez did just as the race started, he felt good on the bike. But unfortunately he had an accident on the second lap, he couldn’t see Binder and he made a mistake. This can happen,” he tried to be positive.
As regards the new Honda rider this year, Pol Espargaró , the Catalan is still unable to close a weekend that lives up to what was expected of him.
“Espargaró had some problems during the race (he lost the left wing of his fairing) and after seven or eight laps he couldn’t live up to his potential and lost some positions.
The one who had shown a good pace in practice was the Japanese Takaaki Nakagami who, however, could not finish the race.
“We had high hopes for Nakagami, but he made a mistake late in the race and crashed. His start wasn’t the best, but he showed good pace and could have earned some points. Álex Márquez has had a very complicated weekend and it hasn’t gone as well as we expected”, he added.
With no time to stop to think too much, this weekend comes the Catalunya Grand Prix , the home event for three of the Honda riders.
“Mugello hasn’t been good for us, but the only thing we can do is keep going. We know that we are not in the best moment, but we will not give up. We will go to Barcelona and try to find a way to overcome our difficulties”, says Puig.
“We stay strong, we stay together as a team. We are facing difficult moments, but we have lived through them in the past and we have overcome them, just as we will overcome this moment. As a team, we will return to our correct level in the short term”, he ditches without sparing an optimism, right now, little justified.
The best photos of the Italian Grand Prix
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