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Luca Marini will be Honda's lone representative at this weekend's Australian Grand Prix, as teammate Joan Mir is set to miss his fourth consecutive MotoGP round.
The 2020 World Champion continues his recovery from an undisclosed illness that sidelined him for the last three race weekends in Austria, Japan, and Indonesia. In those rounds, he was replaced by Takaaki Nakagami, Somkiat Chantra, and Aleix Espargaro respectively, but Honda will field just one rider in Australia with Marini carrying the torch.
The decision comes as Espargaro deals with his own fitness issues, having withdrawn from the Indonesian GP on Sunday morning due to poor physical condition. The Spaniard subsequently headed to Sepang for private testing, but continued to suffer from excessive physical fatigue, ruling him out of the Australian Grand Prix.
Meanwhile, Nakagami is still recovering from an injury sustained in Japan, and Chantra is committed to testing duties for Honda in the World Superbike Championship. Faced with these constraints, Honda has opted to run just a single bike for MotoGP's trip to Phillip Island.
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