PARIS, Aug 30 — Joan Mir, 2020 MotoGP champion, has signed with Honda for 2023 and 2024, where he will team up with fellow Spaniard Marc Marquez, the Japanese team announced today.

The 24-year-old did not have a ride for next season, because his current team Suzuki is quitting MotoGP.

Mir will replace another Spaniard, Pol Espargaro, who will join KTM-Tech3/GasGas.

Mir won the Moto3 title in 2017 on a Honda but moved up to MotoGP with Suzuki in 2019 and won the title in the Covid-curtailed 2020 season.

He also collected his solitary race victory that season in Valencia.

Mir suffered a fractured right foot in a crash in the last race in Austria and will miss the next round this weekend at Misano in Italy.

"We will take advantage of all my experience accumulated over the years in MotoGP with Suzuki to contribute as much as possible to the project and to fight together to become world champions again,” he said in the Honda statement.

Mir will partner Marquez, who has six world titles, but is still battling back from a 2020 crash and underwent a fourth operation on his right arm at the beginning of June. — AFP