Mir: "What Suzuki has brought helps to have more top speed"

The Suzuki rider finished outside the top 10 on the first day of work at Mugello and was somewhat annoyed with the way the day had gone, although confident of being able to redirect the situation this Saturday.

“I’m a little disappointed by the end of practice, they bothered me and I couldn’t finish the second fastest lap”, explained Joan Mir.

“The bike has potential but I haven’t had a good flow , I haven’t been quite fast. We know where the problem comes from, but I’ve had a bit of a fight with her. We know that the bike works, so tomorrow I will try to squeeze all the potential”, added the Spaniard.

Basically, the problem that Mir has found this Friday is that the bike is very aggressive.

“I have a lot of wheelies, a lot of movement at the exit of the corners. I have to make a lot of effort to go fast, I’m not comfortable and that has hurt me a bit in everything, it wasn’t constant. It makes the bike more physical than it already is on this track. I’m confident because the bike is going well and it shows potential. We’ll see how far we can go tomorrow,” he insisted.

Alex Rins revealed on Thursday that Suzuki had brought a couple of new features from Japan that were going to improve the bike.

“The novelties are to have a little more speed during the straight, to have good acceleration,” he said.

And he denied that those changes had anything to do with the instability of his bike today.

“It has nothing to do with it. They are small improvements that are barely noticeable, but in MotoGP the details make the difference, and they are always welcome. It’s more a matter of set-up and geometry, but we have to adjust the bike a bit more because now it’s difficult to finish the lap. I hope to be competitive tomorrow.”

While Mir struggled to make competitive times, Rins was very strong.

“It is very important to have a fast partner, because when we suffer on days like today we see the real potential of the bike. It doesn’t piss me off, on the contrary, I see that the bike is going. We are not giving our best and it is normal that we are not where we should be. Tomorrow we will put everything in its place and push harder”.

Another general impression is that this year Ducati and Yamaha have taken longer steps than Suzuki in the evolution of the bike.

“I don’t think the potential is less than last year. The circuits we have been to are not so favorable so far for the Suzuki . It is clear that Yamaha and Ducati, above all, have improved a lot and that means that they are all ahead and last year there were not so many. They have an extra, especially Ducati, and they sure make things difficult for us. But I hope that we will see the potential that we can have on other tracks soon”.

Once again, and there are quite a few this year, Mir is provisionally going to sleep on Friday outside of Q2 .

“We have to improve, because I haven’t found what I need to be able to go straight to Q2, it’s not enough. I trust we can find something else. It’s getting more and more expensive to spend, but we don’t have to worry. For one thing or another we have not passed this year. I don’t think it’s that serious, but it’s clear that it’s our Achilles’ heel”, acknowledged the champion.