What most caught the attention of Portuguese Grand Prixcelebrated, last Sunday, in the beautiful Portimao layoutit was not that he won, with great authority and ease, the world champion Fabio Quartararo (Yamaha) or that the official teams of Ducati Y Sling added one more GP without winning or Aleix Espargaro (Aprilia) continue his excellent streak with a new podium but, after Jack Miller (Ducati) take ahead of Joan Mir (Suzuki)with seven laps to go, the Mallorcan champion neither complained nor protested about such an action but even commented that the most serious thing “is that, at no time, have I been able to give one hundred percent of my ability as a driver, since it was Impossible to handle the motorcycle due to the instability of the front end & rdquor ;.
Mir almost didn’t care that Miller had ruined his race, implying with his comments that it would have been impossible for him to reach the podium, despite having been very close to the ‘drawer’ all the time, even when the Australian threw him Ducati when he was third. Moreover, when asked if, after the tremendous and spectacular comeback, from 23rd place to 4th, of his teammate Alex Rinswith his same bike, the problem could be in his technical team, Mir even commented “I don’t know how to answer that question & rdquor ;.
Very disappointed
“The truth is that I am much more disappointed by everything that has happened around my bike than by the fact that Jack (Miller) has ruined my race with that internal overtaking that has ended with me on the ground & rdquor ;, Mir began commenting in the press room of the Portimao circuit. “After some very good practices, I had the feeling that I could win but, as soon as I started, I have already started to have problems with the front of the bike, which has prevented me from riding as I wanted. I was not able to press on any lap of the race and that conditioned the result for me, because it was getting worse, worse, worse & rdquor ;.
The Mallorcan, world champion in 2020 and who is sixth overall in the world23 points behind the leading pair made up of fabio quartararo Y Alex Rins, confessed that “the rear grip was good, very good, but the front end was a serious, serious, very serious problem. The rubber was soft and performance was falling with each lap, due to lack of information and, to be honest, I don’t know, we don’t know, what happens, sometimes it goes well and others, like in Portugal, it’s horrible. We can’t go on like this.”
bad setup
Mir regretted that he and, especially his technical team, wasted the opportunity that Portimao offered them “because the pace of the race has not been very fast, we have lapped half a second slower than last year and, therefore, if we had not had that problem in the front, I could have fought for my first victory, like Quartararo, this year & rdquor ;, said who, at the moment, has two fourth places in Argentina and the United States as his best results.
“I’m more burned out for not having been able to get 100% out of my riding on any lap than for the crash caused by Miller”
Joan Mir / Official Suzuki rider
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The leader of Suzuki, the boy who caused historic happiness within the Suzuki team when he won the great title, is very critical of the work of his technical team “because we have not known how to make that front tire work well and we must improve that. It is not, I know, a defective wheel, which sometimes happens. I’m afraid it was a set-up problem, which prevented us from working the tire as it should.”
Mir insisted that he was “much more burned & rdquor; for not having been able to get one hundred percent of his driving “in any lap & rdquor; than for the fact that Miller shot him. “When he braked straight ahead he had no problems, he had problems when he had to brake the bike at an angle. When I saw that Jack got into the inside of the curve, I was afraid that he would not be able to draw it the way he wanted. From the first moment I have seen that he entered very cool but, of course, I was outside. I released the brakes, but I saw that he blocked from the front and, yes, I am afraid that he was too optimistic and took me ahead. A pity, really, but all of us, all of us, have made the same mistake sometimes. They are races, we take risks, it can happen, I hope that Jack learns from this experience & rdquor ;.