The 2025 MotoGP World Championship can be summarised as a year of growth and progress for the Honda HRC Castrol team and Honda HRC overall, Luca Marini and Joan Mir ready to round off Honda HRC’s strongest year since 2019.
After 22 rounds, the longest MotoGP World Championship season to date will come to an end. For Honda HRC, it has been a year of positive progress – one victory and three further podiums heading into the penultimate round are a clear sign that the continued development efforts are heading in the correct direction. Valencia offers a chance to tie a final bow on the year, chase the last targets and prepare a base on which to compare 2026 to.
Arriving at Valencia with 133 points, Luca Marini has already managed to amass almost ten times the points he scored throughout 2024, despite missing three rounds through injury this year. A consistent threat for not only the top ten, but frequently the top five, Marini has been able to deliver steady results weekend after weekend and supply Honda HRC’s engineers with ample data and information. Now the Italian enters the last race with top Honda honours firmly in focus, 11 points the difference between himself and Zarco.
Although suffering a double DNF in Portugal, Mir has still taken more than four times the points of his previous season and stepped onto the podium twice. Undeniably fast in all of the recent races, Mir lands in Valencia determined to show his and the Honda RC213V’s full potential. Having missed the race in Valencia in 2023 and the 2024 edition cancelled, this will be Mir’s first time racing the 4.01-kilometre circuit.
Time waits for no one, especially in MotoGP, and the 2026 season will start just a few days after the conclusion of the 27 lap Valencia Grand Prix on Sunday.