‘Relaxed’ Mir to show more patience, ‘holeshot device’ not ready

Joan Mir says he cannot make the same mistake that cost him a shot at a strong result in the Spanish MotoGP as he targets a strong comeback result in the Andalucia MotoGP at the same Jerez circuit.

One of the headline-grabbers throughout testing, Mir’s weekend unravelled on the back of a disappointing Q2 session that left him 12th before a mistake early on saw him crash out.

However, though he says the Suzuki GSX-RR struggles more than its rivals to turn on the tyres in hot conditions over a single lap, he was judged to have race pace that could have placed him on the podium.

It is that knowledge that he believes will see him fighting at the sharp end throughout this weekend as he looks to make amends, but while he is relaxed about his chances he admits he needs to be more patient at the start of races.

“I think that it can be a good race for me. I think that I need to be a little bit more patient in the race, because the race is too long, it was a mistake that I cannot repeat, so it will be important this weekend to do a good result and forget last week.

“Honestly, the bike was working really well during last weekend. I was strong with the bike, I was feeling good with all the conditions. What we have to improve a little bit is to make the lap time when the temperature is too hot. It's because our weekend was perfect until the qualifying with the heat conditions.

“Looks like it's a little bit more difficult to make the lap time. In FP3 I was able to do a really good lap time, FP1 the same, so we have to work a little bit in this area, and apart from that, I think that the bike was on point for the race, and everything was in the correct position.

“It was more for me the lack of experience a little bit, and I just wanted the result too much, and made a mistake. So probably I will be a little bit more relaxed, do my race and at the end, if I am able to show the potential we will be in front for sure.”

Meanwhile, Mir says Suzuki’s version of the so-called ‘holeshot device’ used so effectively by Ducati is not yet ready for him to use but is hopefully it can be prepared for Sunday.

“It's not ready at the moment. We are trying to fix it a little bit, but it's not ready, so at the moment I don't have more news. I hope to have it this weekend.”