Mir had to start from 18th on the grid at Misano after a poor qualifying on Saturday in tricky conditions and was penalized early in the race with a double long lap for missing the start.
The Suzuki rider’s race only lasted two laps, after he collided with Danilo Petrucci and the two ended up on the ground. The Spaniard apologized for his mistake and the Tech3 man accepted the apology with sportsmanship.
The #36 explained that he switched off the traffic light early because he doubted whether he had activated the Suzuki’s launch control, noting that the start procedure in MotoGP is now “difficult to manage” with all the systems that have to be turned on.
“Well, honestly it was a difficult weekend and when you start like this it’s difficult to do anything,” said Mir.
“But at the start, I did a jump start . I was looking… I was wondering if I put the launch control, at the end there are a lot of things to do with [the holeshot ] front, rear, the launch control. It’s a little difficult to manage the situation, and also start 18th”.
“Anyway, I just want to apologize to the team because in the race they were completely my mistakes. I didn’t know how to manage the situation, so I’m not happy.”
“We have to look back at the weekend and understand why we were in 18th position at the start. This is the first thing, especially when we showed great potential in the wet, so it’s quite frustrating.”
(Before reading on, click on the link or on the image to see all the photos of Joan Mir at the 2021 MotoGP Emilia Romagna GP)
Mir also apologized for causing the incident with Petrucci, admitting that he was simply surprised by the low temperature of the left side of his front tire at that point in the race.
“When I was overtaking Danilo, it wasn’t a crazy move at all,” Mir commented. “It was just a left hand corner and in this temperature, in the first couple of laps you have to be a bit careful on the left side. When I changed direction I lost the front end.
“But it’s a kind of move where I wasn’t going to hit him or do anything crazy. That’s why I think Danilo wasn’t mad. I apologized to him because this is the kind of thing I don’t want to do.”
“Also, I have to say that starting 18th in MotoGP is something else, because all the riders are closing the lines. It’s crazy. It is what it is. You have a lot of riders in front and a lot of confusion. I’m happy that Danilo is okay Of course I didn’t do it on purpose.”
