until Abu Dhabi Autonomous Racing League
Suzuki rider Joan Mir didn’t hide his feelings going into Sunday’s first MotoGP race at Indonesia’s new Mandalika Bay circuit. The 2020 world champion sounded pretty certain he didn’t have much chance of even finishing the race, as terrible track conditions and a newly reintroduced construction of rear Michelin tyre both conspire against him to ensure he struggled hard all weekend.
Yet in the end, he was one of a number of riders who managed to salvage a much better result than anticipated from the weekend, thanks to the torrential downpour that hit the Indonesian circuit just before the start of an already shortened 20-lap race.
From 18th on the grid he ended up sixth, just one place behind team-mate Alex Rins, whose own bad weekend wasn’t quite as terrible as Mir’s. It represented a successful end to what could have been a punishing round, and it’s telling of the improvement in his form that the Spaniard was left somewhat frustrated that he couldn’t have been even further forward.
“We have to be happy with the race that we’ve done,” he said afterwards. “We showed serious potential, especially on the last lap, and it was a shame to start from 18th position and have a 20-lap race. But I enjoyed it, which is something I didn’t do all weekend, because I was suffering a lot.
“We were struggling a lot this weekend and we took a different direction, like you do when you don’t have grip – and this was not good to stop the bike in the wet, because in the wet the grip was really high.
“This is what we were missing to be on the podium, because in the last laps I was starting to get back into it because the conditions for the bike were a little bit better. It was a shame, but I’m happy because it was a tough weekend.”
While he might have felt disappointed at the end of the race, the opening laps are undoubtedly where Mir secured his result, with a typically explosive start allowing him to burst his way into frontrunning contention even despite his poor qualifying position.
“It was unbelievable,” he laughed, “and it’s something that I don’t ever want to lose. It’s really nice how I’m able to open the gaps, to overtake.
“I get a lot of practice at it, starting every race at the back – I’m always training for it! But I really enjoyed it, and on lap five or so I thought, ‘woah, I’m able to do something more here’.
“I thought I could fight for the victory and then I remembered it was only 20 laps.”
And, with Mandalika out of the way, it means that Mir got the chance to move his 2022 plans forward by one weekend, finding a perhaps unexpected strong footing in Indonesia from which to build a better championship fight.
Now ninth in the championship with 14 points from the first two races, it’s not exactly an auspicious start – but with other title favourites such as Marc Marquez and Pecco Bagnaia suffering even tougher beginnings to the year (scoring just 11 points and one point so far respectively), it means he can kick off his season from here.
“We’ll start building a championship from here,” said Mir. “We have to understand the potential of our new bike more, and I don’t have the feeling that we’re exploring it at 100%. There is something more.
“This weekend was really special, for the tyres. It made everything complicated, caused a lot of crashes.
“It’s not easy when you work all year to build a bike and then straight away they change the tyres, it isn’t easy to make them work. We took all the bad parts of it the weekend, but we saved something from it.”
He wasn’t the only Suzuki rider saved by the rain, though, with team-mate Rins equally relieved to have come out of the weekend happier than expected. Rins has outscored his championship-winning team-mate in both races so far this year, and Mandalika gave him too another weekend to build on.
“If the race was in the dry, then for sure I wouldn’t have finished in the top five,” he told The Race afterwards.
“There aren’t many places to overtake, and even in the wet we felt the asphalt hitting our bodies from the rider in front – so imagine that in dry conditions. Luckily, no-one got hurt and the track, like this, with pieces coming out of it in the last corner, was definitely better in the wet than in the dry.”
However, not everyone who was hoping for some wet-weather salvation was saved by the rain. It was a tough weekend for the Hondas as well as the Suzukis, but Pol Espargaro didn’t quite have the same luck as Mir or Rins, thanks in large part to a huge moment exiting the last corner.
Unable to make the same flying start as the Suzuki riders, Espargaro instead got bogged down mid-pack – and with spray creating terrible visibility, he got sucked into an error at the final turn, running onto the kerbs and being lucky to stay on the Honda as he lost rear traction.
“I thought I would feel better,” he explained, “but when the race started I got rain on my visor and couldn’t see anything. It was super dusty from the dust from the track, I couldn’t follow the line. I didn’t know where the kerbs were and I was just following the red light of Pecco [Bagnaia] in front.”
