There are certain stories that are only discovered afterwards. Also because the international achievement no longer focuses only on the head and Pedro Acosta, we grant you that, but also because they concern drivers located in the depths of the ranking. Joan Mir, in Portugal, was not spared by the elements. After the start, a huge contact with Franco Morbidelli – who fell shortly after – compromised his race, already largely compromised by his starting position, and even more compromised by the performance of his package. Clearly, with a 12th place synonymous with the best result for a Honda driver, there is reason to congratulate him.
Joan Mir has not had an easy life for over a year. He accumulates setbacks at Honda Repsol, and when he is not absent due to injury, the 2020 world champion often ends up on the ground. However, since the start of the season, we feel him revitalized, ready to fight, to do battle. This was still the case on Sunday. "JI'm happy with our performance, even if it doesn't seem that way just looking at the final results. In the first lap we had a huge contact with Morbidelli, my leathers on the right side were almost completely black, the bike suffered a lot of damage and I was sent off » he said after the Grand Prix. And what contact, see instead:
A huge black stripe down the right hand side of his leathers after Lap One drama (you should see the bike 😱) but @JoanMirOfficial kept on fighting to get up to 12th pic.twitter.com/k5XZRgzSoQ
- Repsol Honda Team (@HRC_MotoGP) March 24, 2024
Leave better
Getting hit doesn't help, but neither does going far away. « It was quite difficult to deal with all the damage, but even so we were able to keep up with the guys who were fighting for the top 10. The key point we need to work on is improving our qualifications to avoid these types of incidents. Everyone on the team and HRC did a great job to improve our situation from Friday, and so I would like to thank them » he confided, humbly.
Photo: Honda Repsol
As incredible as it may seem, he and Marini seem to be creating a rather positive dynamic within the Honda Repsol box. This bodes very well for the future.
Can Joan Mir do even better in the United States, in just three weeks? Tell us in the comments!
2024 MotoGP Portuguese Grand Prix result:
Classification credit: MotoGP.com
Cover photo: Honda Repsol
