Joan Mir admits to having been very cautious in order to see the finish of the sprint race at Le Mans, after five falls in the ten races contested.
Less comfortable on the Honda than at the start of the season, Joan Mir tried a lot of things with his team and didn't manage to put everything together to automatically qualify for Q2 yesterday. After finishing 15th, he hoped not to break his Q2 streak by escaping Q1, but he ultimately finished 15th in qualifying.
After a mediocre start, he gradually climbed back into the top 10 by the halfway point of the race, and was able to score the final point for ninth place thanks to Pedro Acosta's mistake on the final lap of the sprint race. A positive result after a complicated start to the weekend.
"We saved our day in the sprint race. Yesterday we tested a lot and today we used what we used before. It was a bit difficult to find the last tenths in qualifying because of that, and when it's close, it can make the difference. I'm happy with my race pace, but when you start far back, you immediately lose contact with the leading group. Once I had a clear track in front of me, I was able to show my potential and that of the Honda, and the times were good.", he said during his debriefing.
With five falls in ten races contested, Mir admits that he kept some energy in reserve throughout the race in order not to add a sixth fall to his results. However, these mostly happened on Sunday, and he still needs to manage to make a step up in the race length.
"I had two tenths in the pocket throughout the race because I wanted to see the checkered flag. Tomorrow I'll try to do the same thing. It's not the same when you have the opportunity to fight for the top six. In a long race, you take risks. I took risks in Jerez and I crashed. When you're in the top 6, fighting for eighth or ninth place, sometimes it's not worth doing more because you'll crash for nothing and it's better to score points. It depends on the situation.", he continued.
"Let's hope that tomorrow we can get off to a good start and continue with this mindset. I need to finish races, I need these points. If in sprint races, where we show our speed, we're always in the points, it means that in long races we should do the same or more, but for some reason we're struggling. Let's hope the weather will help me finish the race in a good place."
French GP sprint race results :
Classification credit: MotoGP.com
