Will Joan Mir start the second half of the season on a positive note? It certainly seems that way so far, after an extremely difficult start to the year. The Spanish rider has suffered 12 crashes in the 22 races contested, more than half the total.
He wanted to use the summer break to recharge his batteries and get back on track, and that's precisely what he's doing so far at the British Grand Prix. After automatically progressing to Q2, he was on track to qualify on the first three rows, but, like Marc Márquez, he was caught out on his final flying lap when he thought he saw a yellow flag, which ultimately saw him finish 12th in Q2.
“We have to be satisfied; I think we used the maximum of our package, and that makes me happy. The only downside of the day was qualifying. There was a small incident: I was trying to set my best lap on the last lap, and I saw a yellow flag, but it wasn't one. I saw that Marc had also cut his effort short, and I thought it was a yellow flag because I had seen something yellow. But it was a misunderstanding, and as a result, I couldn't finish my lap. We're not at the level of Ducati and Aprilia here, but I think I could have started a bit further up the order ,” he explained.
After a good start, he gained three positions before benefiting from Raúl Fernández's crash. Running eighth for the remainder of the race, he closed in on Márquez, who was struggling on his Ducati, and overtook him with two laps to go. He also caught up with Pedro Acosta and crossed the finish line less than a tenth of a second behind the KTM rider.
Joan Mir 's performance bodes even better for tomorrow, as, unlike the Ducati and Aprilia riders, he was not hampered by the degradation of his rear tire.
“I gave it my all until the very end to catch Pedro! I got off to a good start and spent most of the race a bit on my own, focusing on my pace. Of course, with a better grid position we could have done better, but I think our realistic goal each weekend is around this position ,” he added.
“I didn’t make any mistakes in the race, I can be proud of that. Our tires were still good at the end, and I think that will be a key point for Sunday’s Grand Prix. We’ll see what we can do with the team tonight to gain speed. In any case, tomorrow we’ll try to do as well as today, and we’ll see what the race throws at us.”
Results of the British Grand Prix sprint race :
Ranking credit: MotoGP.com