Mir won’t forget inch-perfect Rossi pass, inches into title contention

Joan Mir says he won’t forget his inch-perfect pass on Valentino Rossi during the final lap of the San Marino MotoGP, as he demonstrated his and Suzuki’s burgeoning title credentials with an eye-catching third place at Misano.

Fresh from his maiden run to the rostrum during the last couplet of races in Austria, Mir came good again in Misano with a fighting ride up to third position via a telling late overtake on Suzuki counterpart Alex Rins before doing what his team-mate couldn’t for several laps by mugging Rossi for third just corners later.

Though it denied an all-Italian VR46 clean sweep on the podium, Mir was proud with his comeback up the order from a difficult start.

“I am very happy about today, I think we have done a really good job and we gave 100% or gave up the fight for the podium. At the start I was struggling quite a lot with grip to stay with the podium guys, then when the tyre was a bit more used I was able to have a stability in the faster corners and the lap times were coming easily. 

“Then I started to recover the distance of the podium riders and I thought with this pace that a podium is possible. 

“Then I overtook Alex and the last lap with Valentino I will never forget, it was a good manoeuvre. I am sorry for him because he did a really good race, but today was my day. We have one test on Tuesday to work on our weak points, the qualifying tyre, the pace at the start of a race if we want to fight for victories.

His fourth top five finish of the season, the result has duly lifted the Spaniard into fourth position overall as he begins to demonstrate the kind of consistency that has arguably been lacking from his and Suzuki armoury in MotoGP thus far.

“I see myself there in fourth position which is something really good, I am really close to the first one but you look behind and you have a lot of [good] people with not so many points - anything can happen. 

“Everyone is really strong, it is important to be there fighting for the podium and if we do that then everything can happen.

“Everyone wants to win but there isn’t a clear leader, but what is true this year is a lot of bikes are competitive and there are a lot of riders going really fast.”

Mir is now one of several riders potentially in contention for a wide-open 2020 MotoGP World Championship, the Spaniard 16 points shy of the overall lead.