Honda's 2023 MotoGP newcomer Joan Mir has withdrawn from the final round of the season in Valencia after his crash in Friday practice.
It means the 26-year-old premier-class world champion will end the season on just 26 points, and in at best 22nd place in the standings.
Mir had hopes of making the most out of a more favourable track for the Honda RC213V in the Circuit Ricardo Tormo after a run of difficult venues, but this was immediately compromised early into the first session on Friday.
A heavy one at Turn 8 for @JoanMirOfficial 💥
— MotoGP™🏁 (@MotoGP) November 24, 2023
Glad to see he's on the way back to the pits! 👍#ValenciaGP 🏁 pic.twitter.com/6Fv1I8WQgo
Mir crashed hard at Turn 8 with just five laps to his name, and headed to the medical centre instead of resuming practice.
He was then ruled out of taking part in the day's second premier-class session, with the plan instead becoming for his condition to be assessed on Sunday morning.
And though no fractures were diagnosed in a Friday visit to the hospital, the battered Mir and his Honda team have now elected following his latest medical check to pull out of the rest of the weekend.
He will instead "focus on recovering and preparing for the test on Tuesday", presumably in order to maximise his time on the Honda 2024 prototype that he will have at his disposal in the sole post-season test day available.
Mir had already missed four previous grands prix this season due to two separate injuries.
He ends the campaign with a fifth place in India being comfortably his best result across the Sunday races and the sprints, Mir having not scored any points in the latter.
Mir's MotoGP career so far
2019 (Suzuki) - 12th, 92 points (21.6% of total available)
2020 (Suzuki) - 1st, 171 points (48.9% of total available)
2021 (Suzuki) - 3rd, 208 points (46.2% of total available)
2022 (Suzuki) - 15th, 87 points (21.8% of total available)
2023 (Honda) - 22nd or lower, 26 points (4.6% of total available)
Another rider whose weekend was in doubt, Aleix Espargaro, is carrying on - even though the Aprilia rider was fairly confident on Friday that he would not have the stamina to last the race distance on Sunday, and perhaps even in the sprint, too.
Espargaro is riding with a cracked fibula after being clattered into by Miguel Oliveira - whose season is already over - in Qatar, but did make it into Q2 directly by placing in the top 10 on Friday.
