Joan Mir was left disappointed after 'unfortunate penalisation' after contact in the Thai Grand Prix.
The Honda MotoGP riders were once again barely featured in the Thai Grand Prix weekend. The standout Honda rider throughout Round 18 of the 2024 season was Johann Zarco on the LCR Honda.
However, the Honda rider that caused the largest talking point was the Repsol Honda of Joan Mir. The Spaniard was running in 15th place with 4 laps to go in the Thai Grand Prix.
But at Turn Three Mir found himself being forced off of the circuit as Marc Marquez passed him. The former Honda teammates collided and Mir ended up off the track and Marquez continued his rise through the ranks.
After the race when speaking to MotoGP.com Mir was not impressed with the penalty Marquez received.
Mir said: "The incident with Marc (Marquez) was unfortunate because I don't think he needed to do that. With 10km/h more on the straights you can overtake without any problems. In the end, it was an unfortunate penalisation because I lost a lot more positions than what he was given on the penalty side."
The Repsol Honda rider crossed the line in 15th place and picked up one point for his efforts. But the despite the contact it was not a simple race for Mir as he encountered issues with his RC213V during the 26-lap race.
"Something happened, something that we need to understand it was very strange," Mir stated. "On the latter laps we saw some strange things that we need to put together because it was unpredictable to be losing two seconds a lap."