{"id":661318,"date":"2026-05-10T06:36:08","date_gmt":"2026-05-10T06:36:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/661318\/"},"modified":"2026-05-10T06:36:08","modified_gmt":"2026-05-10T06:36:08","slug":"joan-mir-eyes-real-podium-after-solid-le-mans-motogp-sprint","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/661318\/","title":{"rendered":"Joan Mir eyes \u201creal podium\u201d after &#8220;solid&#8221; Le Mans MotoGP Sprint"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Joan Mir believes Honda is close to fighting for a \u201creal\u201d MotoGP podium after finishing a \u201csolid\u201d sixth in the Le Mans Sprint.<\/p>\n<p>More significant than the result was that the position had been earned on pure pace, rather than due to retirements ahead.<\/p>\n<p>Indeed, Mir set a consistently high pace throughout the 13 laps.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe have to be very happy about the fact that we were able to finish in this position without anything happening in front,\u201d Mir told MotoGP.com.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI mean, it was a very solid P6, fighting with guys that I enjoyed fighting with.\u201d<\/p>\n<p> Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n<p> Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n<p>    <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/le-mans-sprint-top-6-marquez.png\"   type=\"image\/png\" alt=\"2026 French MotoGP Sprint lap times: Top 6 plus Marc Marquez.\" loading=\"lazy\" style=\"aspect-ratio:1.79\"\/> <\/p>\n<p>2026 French MotoGP Sprint lap times: Top 6 plus Marc Marquez.<\/p>\n<p> \u00a9\u00a0Peter McLaren<\/p>\n<p>  &#8220;A real podium&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Mir also pointed to the number of crashes he suffered earlier in the season while trying to keep pace with faster machinery.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt&#8217;s true that in the past, we&#8217;ve been in this position a lot of times, but we couldn&#8217;t finish the race,\u201d he explained.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSo now it looks like we are making progress to have everything a bit more under control.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cStill, I have to take a lot of risks because our traction is very poor, but we will work on it and try to make another step and fight for a real podium, not because the others are missing or crashing.\u201d<\/p>\n<p> Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n<p> Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n<p>Mir and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.crash.net\/motogp\/racer\/889489\/johann-zarco\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Johann Zarco<\/a> both secured dry podium finishes for Honda last season.<\/p>\n<p>The RC213V\u2019s best result so far this season remains fifth place by Luca Marini in the COTA Sprint.<\/p>\n<p>Honda&#8217;s most recent win was Zarco&#8217;s emotional home victory at a wet Le Mans a year ago.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>More rain is forecast for Sunday.<\/p>\n<p>Subscribe to our MotoGP Newsletter<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Joan Mir believes Honda is close to fighting for a \u201creal\u201d MotoGP podium after finishing a \u201csolid\u201d sixth&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":661319,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[572],"tags":[64,63,245659,9398,5745,806,805,803,804,85],"class_list":["post-661318","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-motosport","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-honda-hrc-motogp","tag-joan-mir","tag-motogp","tag-motor","tag-motor-sports","tag-motosport","tag-motosports","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/661318","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=661318"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/661318\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/661319"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=661318"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=661318"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=661318"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}