Joan Mir will miss his second straight MotoGP event due to the hand injury he sustained in practice for the Italian Grand Prix earlier this month, with Iker Lecuona deputising.
The 2020 MotoGP world champion crashed during the second practice session on Friday during the Italian GP weekend at Mugello, suffering from “synovial fluid and inflammation” from a contusion on his right hand in the aftermath that limited the movement of the appendage – an ailment that forced to him to miss last weekend’s German GP outing.
Mir has yet to heal sufficiently and thus has elected to skip this weekend’s Dutch TT at Assen – the final race before the summer break – with a view to returning to action for the British round of the 2023 championship in six weeks time.
The Spaniard will be replaced this weekend by Honda World Superbike racer Iker Lecuona, who will make his second premier class start of the year after the Andorran stepped in for an injured Marc Marquez in the Spanish GP at Jerez back in April, the latter set to begin the Assen weekend having missed Sunday’s German GP after fracturing a finger during morning warm-up at the Sachsenring.
“First of all I want to wish Joan all the best in his recovery,” said Lecuona.
“I am excited to join the team again, it’s a true honour. Assen is a circuit I like, I got my first WorldSBK podium there so hopefully we can have another good weekend like in Jerez.
“I am still recovering a bit after the crash in Misano, so this will be a good physical test too. Let’s ride!”
Lecuona performed solidly in his first MotoGP start in well over a year, taking the chequered flag in 16th ahead of GasGas’ Jonas Folger and only 11 seconds behind Honda test rider Stefan Bradl despite having never sampled the RC213V prior to the event.
