“No margin for error”: At some point, the Honda riders can no longer salvage the situation

Honda had the pace to get all four MotoGP riders into the top 10 at the Malaysian Grand Prix. Only Luca Marini made it to the chequered flag in seventh place; it proved too much for the other three.

Ivo Schützbach

MotoGP

04.11.2026 - 19:39

This article is an automatically generated English version. The Original Article was published in German.

Diogo Moreira: Irgendwann war er über dem Limit
© Gold and Goose Photography

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Diogo Moreira

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Honda is gradually closing the gap on the frontrunners in MotoGP. It’s still a long way off the leading pack, but at least: after eight laps, whilst all four Honda riders were still in the race, we saw Johann Zarco, Luca Marini, Joan Mir and Diogo Moreira in 7th, 8th, 10th and 11th places respectively. Then Mir was forced to retire due to dizziness following a prolonged illness, Zarco’s RC213V broke down, and Moreira crashed whilst running in 10th place midway through the race. Only Marini saw the chequered flag – in seventh place.

“I can recover from a slide three or four times, but not for the whole race,” said Moreira, summing up his struggles with the Honda. “All weekend I lacked feel for the front wheel; I couldn’t slow the bike down the way I wanted to – it was a struggle. Just before my crash, I managed to recover from the first front-wheel slide, but not the second. It’s a shame my weekend ended like this. My race wasn’t bad, the pace was okay, but we’ve got no margin for error.”

Honda is stronger in qualifying than in the race

“I wasn’t even pushing hard; I was just trying to stay on the bike,” added last year’s Moto2 world champion. “I tried not to make any mistakes, but it got increasingly difficult. It was the same as always: when I’m chasing lap times, the lap time isn’t too bad. But in the race, the others have much more in the tank than we do, so times like that are impossible. It was extremely difficult for us in Malaysia; let’s see how it goes in Qatar. We can’t get any more out of it.”

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Diogo Moreira

Ahead of the desert races on the Arabian Peninsula, Luca Marini is the highest-placed Honda rider in 13th place overall, whilst Moreira is 15th. Marini and Joan Mir, who finished fifth in Hungary and Brno, recorded the best results of the season. It is unclear whether Mir will be able to race in Qatar given his illness. Superbike World Championship rider Jake Dixon is on standby as a replacement if needed.

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Honda is stronger in qualifying than in the race

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