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Joan Mir’s weekend in Indonesia was an uphill climb, after the first day of practice on the Mandalika track, during which the 26-year-old wasn’t able to enter the Q2. Despite having made good progress compared to the first practice round, the Repsol Honda team rider failed to place his RC213V in the top ten, ending in 19th place on Friday.
“The FP1 wasn’t particularly good. We started with a base that I didn’t feel particularly comfortable with, especially from an electronics viewpoint. Then, in the afternoon, I felt pretty good, and I think we were able to progress by mounting the ‘H’ tire, which is the soft tire here. The bike reacted much better, the electronics also worked correctly, and this allowed me to be quite fast, especially with worn tires,” Joan told reporters.
The Iberian rider then spoke more specifically about the afternoon, explaining what prevented him from directly entering the Q2.
“When it came time to for the time attack with the first t0re, I was disturbed by Marc. I don’t know what happened, if he had problems. The fact is that he disturbed me, and I couldn’t finish,” Mir explained. “In the second attempt, I was behind Pecco, and we got two yellow flags while, in the third, my only opportunity was to give it my all. I think we were doing a good lap, and I think that, if we had finished it, we would’ve probably been able to place in the top five or six, without improving in the last sector. But I saw that Pecco went wide, and I braked at his same point, and I went a bit off the line, and missing the line here means ending up directly on the ground. I lost the front, and all the chances we had to get into the Q2 vanished at that moment.”
The rider from Majorca then spoke about Marc Marquez working with Frankie Carchedi, his crew chief at Suzuki, in his debut year with Gresini team.
“If he’s lucky to work with him? I don’t know. We’ll see,” Joan replied, laughing. “I like Frankie. We have many good memories together, and I like the way he works, so I hope he’ll be very successful in the future with Marc.”
Joan then spoke about the crew chief with whom he became World Champion in 2020: “He’s quite calm, and he’s the kind of person who, if he has to stay awake at night to fix the bike, he’ll do that,” he observed. “Finding someone like that isn’t easy, and I think one of his greatest qualities is precisely the fact that he loves his job and is good at it.”
