This Sunday October 24, 2021, Joan mir answered journalists' questions from the Misano World Circuit Marco Simoncelli, at the end of the Gran Premio Nolan del Made in Italy e dell'Emilia-Romagna.
We went to listen (via teleconferencing software) to the words of the Spanish driver, who made a mistake in the race, taking Danilo Petrucci with him without the latter seeming to hold it against him.
As usual, we report here the words of Joan mir without the slightest formatting.
Joan, this race will not be remembered for you. How do you feel after this one?
« Honestly, it was a difficult weekend, and to end it like this is very hard to swallow. I made an early start because I had doubts about the proper use of launch control when the lights went out. The start of the race really wasn't easy, especially since my 18th place on the grid. »
« I would like to apologize to the team, as the mistake was completely my fault in the race. I couldn't handle the situation, and I'm not happy with myself. But we will have to analyze the weekend in depth to understand why we had to start from 18th place, that's the first thing. »
« I'm quite frustrated, but the most important thing for now is to congratulate Fabio Quartararo on his title. I'm of course sad because I didn't manage to get a second title in a row, but he totally deserves it. He has been the best this season by far, so congratulations to him and to Yamaha. »
Were you surprised after your run-in with Danilo Petrucci to see him come and hug you rather than hug you? It was rather positive to witness this scene after an accident like this…
« When I tried to overtake Danilo, it wasn't a crazy move. It was in a left turn, but the fact is that this weekend, we had to pay attention to the temperatures in the tires, especially on their left side at the start of the race. When I changed direction I simply lost the front, but it was obvious that it wasn't a very aggressive attack, and that's why Danilo didn't blame me afterwards. »
« However, I would like to apologize to him, because this is clearly not the type of thing I want to do. I must also say that starting from 18th place on the grid, MotoGP is a different machine, because all the riders are crossing each other's lines and it's a bit crazy. I'm glad Danilo didn't get hurt, and of course I didn't do this knowingly. »
“My overtaking on Danilo wasn’t a crazy maneuver”
It seems that you suffered more pressure in the last few races, as it became clear that there was going to be a new World Champion, and it wasn't going to be you. But perhaps now that the thing is done you can resolutely move on to something else, and in particular prepare for 2022 in a more liberated way?
« It's not really a story of additional pressure, but the fact of coming back from Austin with a bad result and bad feelings which was hard to take, while we were coming out of a rather promising middle of the season. »
« Here in Misano I am very happy with the progress we have made in the wet. I was constantly in trouble in the rain, but the problem was that in both FP2 and FP3, as soon as the track started to dry out we had a lot of problems. This was really the downside this weekend, and this is what we need to understand to be able to progress again, because we don't know what the weather will be like in Portimão and even less in Valencia. »
