Honda has officially confirmed that Joan Mir will miss this weekend's MotoGP Indonesian Grand Prix. As a replacement, Aleix Espargaro has been named to step into the factory team's garage.
This marks Aleix Espargaro's first appearance of the season for HRC, while Joan Mir continues to be sidelined due to unconfirmed health issues that remain undisclosed by the team.
Throughout 2026, Aleix Espargaro has seen limited track time following a severe injury suffered during pre-season testing at Sepang. The veteran rider subsequently underwent follow-up surgery to remove metalwork from his back, after plates and screws were required when he sustained four fractured vertebrae in the crash.
Due to these injuries, Aleix Espargaro was unable to test the Honda RC213V machine as frequently as originally planned. The setback also forced the cancellation of several wildcard appearances that had been scheduled on his calendar.
Set to make his first race appearance since the 2025 season finale in Valencia, Aleix Espargaro shared his thoughts. Of course it is always a great honour to join the factory Honda team in MotoGP and I want to say thank you to them for trusting me to ride while Joan and Taka recover, he stated.
After the crash at the start of the year and my injury, I have not had as much time on the bike as I would like and we travel to Mandalika with realistic expectations as I've had only a small numbers of laps and it's a really physical track before we even speak about the weather, he added. Let's understand how we can best help the team and Honda this weekend and focus on that.
Stepping in for Joan Mir at last weekend's Japanese Grand Prix was WorldSBK rider Somkiat Chantra, who delivered an impressive performance on his grand prix return. The Thai rider crossed the finish line in 13th place during Sunday's race, finishing just three positions behind Luca Marini.
Speaking of the Italian rider, Luca Marini currently stands as the leading Honda representative in the championship standings as he looks to close the gap to Enea Bastianini and Fermin Aldeguer in the battle for 10th place.
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