until Abu Dhabi Autonomous Racing League
MotoGP’s 2020 world champion Joan Mir says he’s content with the opening races of 2022 so far, after a solid if unspectacular start to the season that means he sits sixth in the championship three races in.
It’s left the Suzuki man 12 points behind new leader Aleix Espargaro but crucially ahead of pre-season title rivals like reigning world champion Fabio Quartararo and 2021 runner-up Pecco Bagnaia.
Sunday’s Argentine Grand Prix ended with Mir not quite able to match the performances of team-mate Alex Rins for the second race in a row as Rins came home in third – but with Mir very nearly able to hunt him down and catch him in the closing stages of the race, he was adamant afterwards that there’s still plenty to be upbeat about.
That’s because the performance that allowed him to chase down Rins comes from finding the one thing that he was most missing in his lacklustre 2021 title defence – the ability to go on the attack in the closing laps of races, his greatest strength in 2020 but missing since then.
“Honestly I feel great,” he insisted after finishing fourth, “because we took some positive things from this race.
“I think that the performance in the last part of the race is something that we can use, because it was a good one. I got it back, that feeling that made me be so strong in 2020. To be strong in the last laps is something that we were missing a little bit, but I was able to get it.
“I was disappointed in Qatar, because I expected more. This character that normally as a rider I have and that the bike has always helped me to have in 2020, to come back in the last laps by controlling well the throttle and everything, was something that we didn’t have in 2021 and also in Qatar. The expectations there were high because we felt strong – but then we didn’t have grip and there’s nothing you can do, you can’t go forward.
“The grip was better here, although we’re still a little far away, especially on the very first touch of the throttle. I always made the bike spin too much.
“So, there are some positive things from this race. Not the position, but the pace and everything – it’s the first race where in one moment of the race we were the strongest.”
The only thing that perhaps left him a little frustrated on Sunday was that he wasn’t quite able to take the final step he needed and to fight against Rins and Repsol Honda rider Pol Espargaro for the final podium spot behind the runaway duo of race winner Aleix Espargaro and runner-up Jorge Martin.
Now dramatically improved in qualifying compared to previous seasons and able to make a decent start from eighth to get into the podium fight from the beginning, it was not his own fault but someone else’s error that he believes probably prevented him from finishing one place higher.
“[Takaaki] Nakagami kicked me out on the second corner and he was just quite nervous,” he explained. ”I managed to overtake him, then it was Fabio, [Luca] Marini, and I was able to close the gap to Pol. It was good. These manoeuvres penalised me, but we can be happy because we were one of the strongest, I think.
“Nakagami was a little bit out of control. In the first few laps, for me it was a bit too much. In the end, I think he was fifth or sixth, and if you control the race from there and make a good end to the race – but he was killing the tyres and making dangerous manoeuvres. I didn’t understand what he was doing.
“I was there. I was behind Pol already, and this was really important. With Pol and Alex [Rins], with the guys who fought for the podium – but then everything is complicated more by this. But this is racing, we can’t complain and this is what we love to do – to overtake and to put the elbows out!”
And while he might be a little disappointed with fourth and not third, the breakthrough step in finding his old feeling again means that the overall picture as MotoGP heads to Texas for the final of four overseas opening rounds kicking off the season is a very positive one indeed for the Suzukiu rider.
“This is important,” he said of finishing well clear of rivals like Quartararo and Bagnaia. “In MotoGP nowadays, the constancy is really important because for example with what has happened to Ducati, there are some riders who are very strong in one race and then in another, another rider is strong. If we are always there, it will be important.
“Here it’s been important to make results, and I think I’m more or less satisfied with my job in these races. I’m not making mistakes, I’m always there in the race, with problems or without. We’re doing some humble results at the moment, but we’re getting better and this is the way we have to follow. We have to not panic, take it race by race, and to arrive in Europe with the bike on point, everything on point. And then the championship starts there.”
