Joan Mir concluded the first day of free practice for the French Grand Prix with the thirteenth time in P2 while in the morning in P1, the Spanish driver had obtained the sixth time. Mir admitted he still needs time to adapt to the RC213V and aims to enter Q2 tomorrow, with, a priori, the Kalex chassis validated.
The big news at Honda this Friday at the French Grand Prix will have been the Kalex chassis finally made available… Only Repsol pilots. What did Joan Mir think, who has struggled so much since he got to know the RC213V? He answers : " we tested a new chassis this morning and I was able to improve my sensations, ride more comfortably, but we still need to adjust the settings and myself to get the most out of it. In the morning everything seemed easy, but in the afternoon it was a little more complicated and we have to analyze this evening what changed from one session to the next. We will continue to work in the same way tomorrow, looking for those last tenths to fight for Q2 ».
He explains: “everything came very naturally to me, in quotes everything was very easy, and there, we decided to continue with this chassis, because we think that in the long term, it could have a little more potential” . Asked about the advantages of the frame developed by Kalex, the 2020 world champion on Suzuki believes that it is “ much better » after having driven it today for almost 40 laps at Le Mans. His first impression is that he is " different » from the Honda frame: “ I like the way it transitions to middle of the turn, the way it turns and the grip also seems a little better, but you have to understand what this chassis is and you have to go quickly ».
Joan Mir: “ it is not enough to put the new chassis with the adjustment of the other »
Because it’s not that simple: “ it is not enough to put the new chassis with the adjustment of the other, maybe it needs something a little different and this afternoon the truth is that if in the morning I was capable of doing 1'31 very easily, in the afternoon I was not even able to come within half a second of this morning's time. I was the only one not to come down ».
The teammate of Marc Marquez ends with this warning: “ that's not the only thing we're missing, because in top speed we're last. Here we need more things to take a bigger step forward, but maybe with this we can fight, who knows ". It's definitely not easy to be the driver of a Japanese manufacturer at the moment in MotoGP.
MotoGP France J1: ranking
Credit classification motogp.com
