Why Honda Might Bench Aleix Espargaro for the 2026 Indonesian GP

Aleix Espargaro has admitted that Honda may not allow him to race in the MotoGP Indonesian Grand Prix due to an upcoming crucial 850cc test session in Malaysia next week.

The three-time premier class race winner has been drafted into the factory squad to replace Joan Mir this weekend at Mandalika, with the 2020 world champion currently unwell and unable to compete.

Originally, Takaaki Nakagami was scheduled to shoulder this replacement duty, but those plans were derailed when he fractured his collarbone during an FP1 crash at the Japanese Grand Prix last weekend.

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Espargaro himself has not participated in any competitive racing this year following a violent testing crash earlier in the season that forced him onto a lengthy recovery path.

The weekend struggles compounded when he qualified dead last and finished in that exact position, crossing the line 38.336s behind the leader in the 13-lap sprint race, alongside a separate crash during FP2 on Saturday morning.

The Spanish veteran revealed that he has been suffering intensely with arm pump issues and only managed to drag his machine across the finish line of the sprint race as a mark of deep respect for his manufacturer.

He remains genuinely unsure whether he will take part in the full grand prix, with team management potentially electing to rest him up ahead of two demanding days of 850cc development testing in Malaysia.

"I tried my best during the session, but I crashed also in the practice," he told the media, including Crash, on Saturday.

"In the sprint I just tried to finish to just pay respect to the team and myself. But it was very difficult. It’s a shame, but we will see tomorrow what we can do."

Reflecting on his earlier FP2 incident, he added: "I had just no power in the arm."

"I changed direction, and I had no power in the arm, and I lost the front; I was not able to handle it. This is why I was not sure to do the sprint race, but I tried just to finish, not risking a lot, not pushing too much. But, yeah, you could see that I had no strength."

"I don’t know if I will race. Still we need to decide what we’re going to do."

"Today I suffered just to finish a very short race. So, it’s going to be difficult, frankly speaking, to finish the race tomorrow. But we have to analyse later today and decide."

"Next week, actually, I have a test. This is why we need to decide what the preference is: race tomorrow or rest a little bit to be fresh for the Sepang test."

"I have two days in Sepang, so let’s see. I feel good for testing. Testing normally you do two, three consecutive laps. So, racing here, you have to do many consecutive laps and also in a very, very high pace. So, it’s difficult," he concluded.