Sunday’s Argentine Grand Prix will be only the second race since 1994 without a Repsol Honda bike on the grid, following the news that Joan Mir will join Marc Marquez on the injured rider list and miss the Termas de Rio Hondo race due to injuries sustained in Saturday’s sprint.
The Spaniard crashed heavily on the opening lap of the 12-lap sprint, in what looked like a relatively innocuous fall. However, despite initial reports of an ankle injury, he was then taken to hospital by helicopter for precautionary CT scans, which diagnosed cranial and cervical trauma.
“Undergoing CT and ultrasound tests at the Hospital Santiago del Estero,” said his team in a statement, “cervical physiological lordosis was confirmed and Mir continued to experience feelings of nausea and dizziness.
“Mir will return home to Europe to continue his recovery to be fully prepared for the Grand Prix of the Americas.”
The news means that only 17 riders will line up on the grid for Sunday’s race, the lowest number to start a grand prix since the final round of 2011.
Mir’s team-mate Marquez continues to recover from the broken hand he suffered in a fall at last weekend’s Portuguese Grand Prix, while RNF Aprilia racer Miguel Oliveira is recuperating from the damaged hip ligaments he suffered in the same crash, when Marquez torpedoed into him and Jorge Martin.
Tech3 Gas Gas rider Pol Espargaro is facing a long road back to full recovery from the broken jaw and four fractured vertebrae he suffered in his practice crash, while Enea Bastianini is in a fitness race to return at the next round at the Circuit of the Americas after breaking his shoulder in a fall with Luca Marini during last week’s sprint.
The last time the Repsol-backed Honda factory team had to sit out a MotoGP race in full was Valencia 2021, when Marquez was sidelined by a recurrence of diplopia, test rider Stefan Bradl didn’t get called up due to having an important test coming up, and Espargaro – then at Honda – was ruled out by a practice fall.
