Alex Rins will miss the next two MotoGP races as he continues to recover from recent surgery on his leg, with Iker Lecuona to deputise for the Spaniard.

Rins has struggled to be race-fit since breaking his left leg in a nasty crash in June’s Italian Grand Prix sprint race at Mugello. The LCR Honda racer spent four months on the sidelines waiting for his injury to heal before returning for the Japanese Grand Prix, though he was forced to push his race return a further two weeks to the Indonesian GP.  

Having finished an impressive ninth on Sunday at Mandalika, Rins then ran into more problems after sustaining a hernia on his healing leg ahead of the Australian GP – the six-time premier class race winner subsequently undergoing surgery to correct the problem.

This forced him to miss the Thai GP, and due to an extended recovery period, he has now been forced to skip this weekend’s Malaysian GP as well as the Qatar GP a week later. He hopes to make a welcome return to competition for the season finale at Valencia, his last race with Honda before moving to Yamaha’s factory operation for next year.

Explaining the situation in a brief post across its social media channels, the LCR squad revealed that Honda World Superbike racer Lecuona would step in for Rins for the next two grand prix outings. This will bring Lecuona’s total race number in 2023 to seven, the Andorran having deputised for Marc Marquez and Joan Mir in the factory Honda team for the Spanish and Dutch encounters respectively.

He then made a further three outings with LCR in place of Rins for the British, Austrian and Catalan GPs. He is yet to score points in his 2023 appearances so far, his best result of 16^th coming in Jerez and Barcelona.  

Alex Rins will miss the MotoGP Thailand Grand Prix having been faced with yet another setback with the recovery of the broken left leg he suffered at Mugello in June.

The LCR Honda rider spent nearly four months in rehab trying to recover from the injury he sustained as a result of a crash in the Italian GP sprint race, the Spaniard returning to action in practice at Motegi at the start of October.

Having been forced out of action in Japan due to pain from his leg, he made a full comeback for the Indonesian GP – in which he finished an impressive ninth. He then had to pull out of last weekend’s Australian GP after suffering pain once again in the healing leg.

After tests in Australia failed to show what was causing his latest bout of discomfort, Rins headed to Madrid for further examination of the appendage. It was subsequently found that a hernia had developed on his healing fibula.

Further surgery will now be undertaken to remedy the problem so that he can try and make his return for the final three races of the 2023 campaign. LCR won’t replace Rins for this weekend’s Thai GP due to the short turnaround time.

“Happy after our doctor’s appointment today , the injury keeps a positive evolution,” said Rins on social media after the source of his recent leg pain was found.  

“We’ve identified the cause of the pain and we’ll undergo a small surgery to ease it. We won’t be at the Thai GP but we keep working towards a full recovery.”

Rins’ absence from Thailand means Honda will have just three bikes on track at the Chang International Circuit. Marc Marquez and Joan Mir will be in action for the factory Repsol Honda outfit, while Takaaki Nakagami will fly LCR’s flag on the sole remaining RC213V run the by Italian team.

Takaaki Nakagami will remain with the LCR Honda MotoGP outfit for 2024 after signing an extension with the squad, the Japanese secured for a further season in the premier class.

Nakagami has competed in MotoGP with the Italian outfit as a Honda-contracted pilot since making his bow in the series in 2018, the two-time Moto2 race winner running in the colours of Japanese oil company Idemitsu throughout his stay in MotoGP.

Rumours have been abound in recent months that he may be moved aside for Honda’s young protégé Ai Ogura, who is currently contesting his third season in Moto2 with the Japanese manufacturer-backed Honda Team Asia team.

With Honda struggling to make headway with its tricky RC213V premier class machine though, it has elected to keep the experienced Nakagami as it looks to rebuild its programme. This news seemed all but confirmed after Ogura signed with new Moto2 outfit MT Helmets – MSI last week, though he remains contracted to Honda going forward.

Nakagami says he is “excited” to continue his MotoGP journey with Honda and LCR, adding he feels all three parties are a “good match.”

“I feel LCR is part of my family, and of course, I’m excited to be with them for another season,” said Nakagami.  

“I want to thank them and HRC for the opportunity, as I know we are a good match. Now it’s time to work even harder to be ready for the future”. 

LCR Team Principle Lucio Ceccinello echoed Nakagami’s thoughts and says he is “proud to count” on the services of Nakagami for 2024.

“I’m proud to count on Nakagami for another year,” said Ceccinello.  

“He’s a fast rider who can get good results, and alongside HRC, we believe it’s time to keep pushing, as he’s one of the most experienced guys with this bike. We will give our best to fight for the positions we aim for”.

Nakagami currently sits 17^th overall in the riders standings on 35 points, his best result of eighth coming off the back of a strong run at Assen in the Dutch TT.

He remains 12 markers adrift of injured team-mate Alex Rins despite the Spaniard having been forced to sit on the sidelines with a broken leg since the Italian Grand Prix back in June. The bulk of Rins’ points were scored as a result of his stand-out Americas GP weekend, where he scored an unlikely victory in Sunday’s grand prix as well as a runner-up finish in Saturday’s sprint contest.

Rins will remain out of action until at least the Indonesian GP in mid-October after a recent Aragon test to evaluate his physical condition didn’t produce the desired results.

LCR Honda officially announced on Tuesday afternoon that Johann Zarco will join its ranks for the 2024 MotoGP season on a two year deal.

Zarco had been rumoured in recent weeks to be looking at switching from his role as a factory Ducati rider with satellite squad Pramac to a factory Honda-contracted pilot with LCR, as Ducati looked to promote impressive VR46 sophomore racer Marco Bezzecchi to a current-specification Desmosedici following a strong start to 2023, the Italian having collected two wins thus far.

With Zarco yet to secure a premier class victory, it was he who would have been the odd-man-out should Bezzecchi take up the option of moving to Pramac next season – allowing Honda to swoop in with a lucrative offer to have the Frenchman join it in place of Alex Rins, who was announced as a 2024 factory Yamaha pilot at Silverstone earlier this month.

LCR team boss Lucio Ceccinello says his team is “very excited” to be welcoming two-time Moto2 world champion into its fold for next term, Zarco set to be instrumental in Honda’s quest to rediscover its old form and return to the forefront of MotoGP.

“We are very excited to welcome Johann to the LCR Honda Castrol team with all the respective details and signatures now in place,” said Ceccinello.

“It is a return to the team after we had some brief time together in 2019, where we could already see his potential and work ethic.

“There are still a lot of races and work to be done this season, but we are looking forward to the start of this new project in 2024.”

Zarco isn’t completely new to the LCR squad having completed three races with the outfit at the back end of 2019 as a replacement for an injured Takaaki Nakagami, the 19-time MotoGP rostrum finisher securing a best result of 13th in his first outing with the team in the Australian Grand Prix at Phillip Island.

He currently sits fifth overall in the 2023 rider’s standings having scored a total of four podium results so far, Zarco’s efforts alongside German GP victor Jorge Martin allowing Pramac to sit atop the team’s points standings at the mid-point of the season.

Alex Rins is set to miss the upcoming British Grand Prix as he continues to recover from a broken leg, with Iker Lecuona or Stefan Bradl set to stand-in.

The LCR Honda racer was discharged from hospital at the end of last month so he could head home to Andorra and continue his rehabilitation with hopes he may be fit enough to ride at Silverstone, though according to team boss Lucio Ceccinello in an interview with Speedweek Rins can only begin to walk again in the first week of August – the same week of the British GP.

He will therefore look to make his competition return at either the Red Bull Ring for the Austrian GP at the end of June, or failing that the subsequent outing in Barcelona at the start of September.

“Alex Rins will not compete in Silverstone,” said Cecchinello. 

“His recovery is making very good progress. But I don’t know when he’ll be able to race again and when he’ll come back.”

“Then Alex can put weight on his broken leg again for the first time. He will then be allowed to take his first steps for the first time since the accident. 

“If he feels good, he will return in Spielberg on August 20th or in Barcelona on September 3rd. We don’t know that yet.”

His replacement will likely be Honda test rider Stefan Bradl as Iker Lecuona – who has deputised for both Marc Marquez and Joan Mir at the factory Honda outfit so far this term – is set to be busy competing with Honda at the Suzuka 8 Hours on a Fireblade superbike.  

Ceccinello confirmed to Speedweek that Lecuona could still be a potential option for the squad at Silverstone should he be able to be replaced for the Suzuka event.

The injured Tetsuta Nagashima – who won the prestigious race alongside Lecuona and Takumi Takahashi last year – is likely to be the main option should he recover in time for the race, the Japanese pilot having taken part in a test session at Suzuka two weeks ago where he showed strong performance.

“That is (Lecuona at LCR for Silverstone) one of the possibilities, but I still have to clarify a few open points with Lecuona’s manager,” added Ceccinello.

Alex Rins has been discharged from hospital just over two weeks on from his nasty crash during the Italian Grand Prix sprint race that left him with a broken leg.

The LCR Honda rider crashed at the ultra-fast Turn 8 right-hander at Mugello in the early stages of the half-distance encounter, an incident that caused him to sustain a broken tibia and fibula in his right leg and thus miss the Italian GP as a result.

The Spaniard has since been forced to remain in hospital with a leg brace in order to help with the healing process, which has now progressed far enough for him to return home to further continue his recovery.

As a result of his injury Rins was also forced to skip the recent German and Dutch outings that made up the first triple-header event of the season along with the Italian event, with MotoGP now beginning a five-week summer break until resuming with the British GP at Silverstone in early August.   

Rins’ return for the British round of the series currently looks unlikely, with Takaaki Nakagami likely to be joined by Honda test rider Stefan Bradl – the German having stepped in for Rins at Assen last weekend.

Rins currently remains the only one of Honda’s four full-time riders to stand on the grand prix rostrum so far in 2023 courtesy of his stand-out victory at the Circuit of the Americas back in April, while a further pair of top ten results currently leaves him 13^th in the overall standings despite having essentially failed to score in the last five rounds due to DNF’s in Spain and France also.

Takaaki Nakagami insisted that Marc Marquez “did nothing wrong” in his nasty Turn 7 crash in warm-up at the Sachsenring that ruled him out of the German Grand Prix.

Marquez suffered a tough weekend in Germany as he tried to defend his unbeaten premier class record at the 3.6 kilometre venue that stretches all the way back to his debut season back in 2013, the six-time MotoGP champion suffering a total of four crashes across Friday and Saturday action at the Sachsenring as he struggled to tame Honda’s unpredictable RC213V.

Having qualified seventh despite crashing three times during qualifying alone, Marquez was circulating during warm-up on Sunday when he crashed heavily for the fifth time across the event at Turn 7 – the impact breaking a finger and forcing him to sit out the German GP with a view of returning for this weekend’s Dutch TT at Assen.

With fellow Honda riders Alex Rins and Joan Mir missing the event in its entirety due to suffering injuries at the previous round at Mugello, Marquez’s incident meant LCR’s Nakagami was the only Honda rider to take the start in the German GP – the Japanese racer insisting that Marquez did “nothing wrong” to cause his warm-up get-off.

“Before he (Marc Marquez) had the crash I was behind him and I couldn’t see anything wrong with his riding, the speed was good and I could see that he wasn’t doing anything wrong but he lost the rear completely and the bike didn’t stop the spin and he got a massive high-side,” explained Nakagami.

“I was scared because we use the same bike and I had the same feeling that that corner (Turn 7) was really tricky because you’re going downhill and I felt a couple times during that session and the race the same feeling.

“It was really difficult to manage because the bike is always moving with less grip, so we have to find solution to make the bike safer.”

Nakagami added that Honda’s current predicament “couldn’t be any worse” with three of its four pilots forced onto the sidelines for the German event, the two-time Moto2 race winner focussing on not taking “any big risks” until Honda can bring improvements to its troubled prototype.  

“It couldn’t be any worse (current state of affairs) because we are normally four bikes with four riders and today I was the only Honda on track so hopefully all three riders have a speedy recovery,” continued Nakagami.

“We are in a really tough moment but at least I feel OK, it’s difficult but I won’t give up and I believe that all of HRC have some ideas to improve the bike to make it more competitive.

“I don’t want to be fighting all year for 15^th, but all I can do for now is keep pushing and don’t take any big risks.”

Alex Rins has suffered a broken tibia and fibula in his right leg as a result of his crash during the Italian Grand Prix sprint race.

The LCR Honda rider crashed at the ultra-fast Turn 8 – also known as Arrabbiata 1 – on the fourth lap of the 11-tour sprint encounter and skidded off into the gravel heavily, the Spaniard swiftly transferred to a local hospital in nearby Florence for further examination on his right leg after a trip to the medical centre showed fractures on the appendage.

Rins was subsequently diagnosed with a broken tibia and fibula in the leg, an injury that will force him out for the remainder of the Italian event – which will likely also facilitate a lengthy recovery process that will see him miss the German and Dutch contests that directly follow this weekend’s action to make up the triple header prior to the summer break.

LCR will thus be reduced to a single bullet for Sunday’s Italian GP – in the shape of Takaaki Nakagami who will start 16^th – while Honda test rider Stefan Bradl would be a logical choice for the next couple of grands prix until Rins rejoins the action.  

Rins currently sits tenth in the overall riders standings heading into Sunday’s full-length race at Mugello, the Spaniard having secured Honda’s first win of the year thanks to an emphatic ride in April’s Americas GP at the Circuit of the Americas.

Alex Rins reckons that Honda’s tricky 2023 MotoGP-specification RC213-V machine is “not so bad”, and that an improvement in the aerodynamic properties of the bike could solve its current issues.

Rins joined the LCR Honda squad for 2023 having been left out of a ride at the end of ’22 following the conclusion of Suzuki’s premier class operation, a move that many expected would be tough for Rins given the recent struggles for the bulk of Honda’s pilot’s to tame its aggressive RC213-V bike.

The Spaniard has managed to get on well with the prototype so far though in his opening races with it, Rins securing a shock victory in the Americas Grand Prix before then ending Friday practice at Mugello for the Italian GP in third overall and less than a tenth-of-a-second adrift of Francesco Bagnaia’s factory Ducati.

The five-time premier class race winner revealed in an interview with Austrian publication Speedweek that he felt the Honda is “not so bad” compared to what he expected when moving from the Suzuki GSX-RR, which was known to be one of the easiest and best balanced machines on the grid.

He outlined the Honda’s relatively under-developed aerodynamic setup – certainly compared to the solutions brought by the European factories of Ducati, Aprilia and KTM – as the RC213-V’s chief weakness, which manifests mainly as a lack of traction as a result of the bike lifting its front wheel on corner exit more than its rivals.

“The motorcycle (RC213-V) is not so difficult to drive. It’s not super easy, but I expected it to be a bit more difficult. It is not so bad,” said Rins.

“From my point of view the main problem at the moment is on the aerodynamics side because we have a lot of wheelie bias and we don’t have enough support at the front and not good traction when we right the bike up.

“I have more trouble turning and struggling to feel the support on the front wheel. And yes, the win in Austin was a big surprise. I wasn’t expecting to win that weekend but I like the track and we prepared the Grand Prix pretty well.”

A thrilled Alex Rins enthused that he and his LCR Honda squad are still “building our base” despite securing a commanding victory in the Americas Grand Prix.

The Spaniard looked strong throughout the weekend at the Circuit of the Americas having qualified second in Saturday’s pole shootout, before he then backed this up with a first podium finish running Honda machinery in the subsequent sprint race as he finished as runner-up to reigning MotoGP world champion Francesco Bagnaia.

Rins continued his impressive form on Sunday after piling the pressure on Bagnaia across the full-length Americas GP until the factory Ducati rider crashed out at Turn 2 just prior to mid-distance, gifting the Spaniard a near two-second advantage over Yamaha’s Fabio Quartararo.

He continued to control his gap expertly across the remaining laps – even as a charging Luca Marini moved into the runners-up spot on his Ducati – to ultimately take the chequered flag 3.4 seconds to the good, securing his debut win riding a Honda in only his third weekend on the bike, as well as his LCR team’s first in five years.   

Describing his somewhat unexpected success as “amazing”, Rins feels his strong early form at LCR is a good omen for the future due to him and the Italian operation still “creating our base.”

“This is amazing, we did a great race and were quite fast right from the beginning,” explained Rins to BT Sport following the Americas GP.  

“We are still creating our base, so the race was amazing.

 “I’m looking forward to what’s next, this is a great result for all the team, they have been waiting for this and it’s the 100^th podium for LCR, so they really deserve it.

“When I arrived to LCR I have kept working in the same way as I did in my old team, so maybe I’ve brought some experience from the past, either from the bike or the way of working I’m not really sure but it’s working.”

The six-time premier class race victor – who has now won three of the last six MotoGP encounters on two different machines – felt his tyre management made the difference on race day, conceding that he hadn’t done a good enough job in this regard during the sprint contest.   

“The rhythm was high from the start and we were riding so fast, I was trying to follow Pecco (Bagnaia) but he was faster than me in the third and fourth sectors, but I was risking a lot in the first and second splits to reduce the gap,” continued Rins.

“Honestly after yesterday (sprint race) I was thinking to just ride a bit slower, yesterday the tyres were destroyed with that pace we did.

“But today we did the same pace, so I’m quite impressed because my management of the throttle and the tyres was quite nice.”