Joan Mir finished the Sprint race of the Spanish GP in ninth place and highlighted the difficulties faced, showing himself moderately satisfied with the result achieved.
After the race, Mir described the level of difficulty experienced on track: ‘Here, the points are quite expensive, I would say. Honestly, with the amount of problems we have, finishing in that position is not bad. We found a group where I felt relatively comfortable, with Maverick Viñales, [Fabio] Di Giannantonio, and [Marco] Bezzecchi. We fought a lot in the first laps, but we are having difficulties with the vibration problem, especially during the races.’
The rider further explained how the vibrations affect his riding style and final performance: ‘With that vibration, we have to ride in a way that uses more of the front tire, because we can turn the bike less, and that means more time inside the corner. In the last three or four laps, my front tire was worn out and I started losing positions. I didn’t have the opportunity to attack the rider in front because of this problem.’
Despite the difficulties, Mir showed optimism about the team’s progress: ‘I think we are on the right track. We did a good lap in qualifying, although others were super fast. When I saw 1m36.1 or 1m36.2 on my dashboard I thought: “Maybe it’s enough for the second row,” but even so we only managed the third row. I’m happy; we know where we need to improve and, with Álex here giving another opinion, we are very aligned in our comments. I think it will be a positive weekend in terms of information and confirmation of the problems.’
When asked about the track conditions, Mir confirmed the extra difficulties he encountered: ‘It’s true that this morning, with the cold, the Michelins and low temperatures don’t mix very well. We have to be careful because accidents usually happen in fast corners and direction changes, and they are quite hard crashes. In the afternoon, everything became more slippery and slower.’