There are not many opportunities that Joan Mir has had to fight with real options for pole position since he is in MotoGP , but this Saturday in the classification of the Algarve Grand Prix the Suzuki rider seemed to have the weapons to achieve it.
With his first tire, Mir placed first and with the second he saved one last attempt to assault the track record, but unexpectedly Alex Márquez got ahead of him, cutting off his trajectory and preventing him from taking advantage of that last opportunity.
“I’m a bit angry, because I thought I could fight for pole today. It’s a shame, because I did the time with the first tire, which was already a good time that I didn’t expect”, admitted Mir, always suffering in terms of qualifying at one fast lap.
“With the second tire I did the first lap giving the wheel to Alex Márquez , whom I had already helped in the first start. When I finished the lap to warm up the tires and was about to do my final fastest lap, he passed me at the end of the straight and slowed down. I don’t understand these things. He apologized, but in the end he destroyed my opportunity to fight for pole position”, lamented the Mallorcan, who since Valencia in 2017 (Moto3) had not been able to qualify on the front row.
Despite everything, Mir will start third this Sunday –as in the Styrian GP in 2020 due to a sanction against Johann Zarco–, behind Pecco Bagnaia and Jack Miller, equaling the best grid position since he has been in MotoGP, which will It gives many options to be able to be in the fight for victory with arguments.
“I’m happy with the position, but when I can’t give 100% I get angry, it’s normal. I’ve done all I can. Already during the season we did a good job on the small details. Since Misano 1 we had found something that helped me to be a little more competitive. But for one reason or another we have never shown it with a good ranking”, until now.
Mir has been complaining since the beginning of the season about the difficulty of being able to do a fast lap on Saturdays, something that Suzuki has worked a lot on.
“Since the Misano test I had the new parts that helped me, but I couldn’t test them all together and that’s why I was very angry. Coming back here and showing that you can fight for pole position is very important for me and for the team, they deserve it very much”, he added.
“I thank Suzuki for giving me the package to fight on Saturdays. In FP4 I wasn’t very happy, because we tried one thing at the front and I didn’t like it, I couldn’t stop the bike well. I was setting pretty consistent times, but I couldn’t be strong on the medium tyre. I couldn’t do 1:39, which I think will be the pace of the race. I was missing a bit despite being constant. But we will fix it for the race”, assured the 2020 world champion.
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