Joan Mir was not slowed down too much by problems on Friday, which made it "much easier" for him to automatically advance to Q2.
After two complicated Grand Prix in Indonesia and in Australia, Joan Mir got off to a good start this Friday in Malaysia. After finishing third in FP1 this morning despite the difficult weather conditions, he continued his momentum in Practice this afternoon and finished fourth. This result gave him a direct passage to Q2 and will therefore try to qualify among the first two rows tomorrow.
The Spaniard, like his teammate Luca Marini, has often pointed out the Honda's lack of consistency on a flying lap, and has consequently struggled in Q2. It has not been uncommon to see him between ninth and 12th place on the grid this season, and he has only managed to qualify in the top five twice.
Mir is therefore perfectly aware that things could get complicated tomorrow, particularly in terms of the choice of tires, but is already satisfied with his day, since he and his team managed to align everything.
"It was a good day, without too many problems.", did he declare. "We were able to be fast from the first minute of FP1, and that made our job much easier today. We simply adjusted the bike to the conditions at the time and improved every time we were on track."
"There are still some question marks like the tires and which one is better, if the soft tire can last until the end of the race. It's not that we have difficulties on any particular point, we just need to understand if we can finish the race without excessive wear on the rear tire, and also the front tire. We don't know how the bike reacts after 10, 12 or 15 laps. So it's important that we understand that tomorrow. We need to work a little more on race pace, but the important thing is that we are at the front when everyone is attacking."
Malaysian Grand Prix Practice Results :
Classification credit: MotoGP.com
