Suzuki’s Joan Mir collected his second podium of the season at Mugello this afternoon after finishing the ItalianGP in third position.
Digging deep throughout the distressing day, the Spaniard fought his way through from ninth on the grid. Battling teammate Alex Rins, and the Ducati’s of Jack Miller and Johann Zarco, Mir ended the 23-lap race on the wheels of KTM’s Miguel Oliveira, for the podium.
“Today was really difficult for every one of us to put the helmet on and to make the job out there after the terrible news but this is our job” Mir admitted from Parc Ferme.
“There is no preparation for it. I think that every one of us, the riders, we feel this more than the others because we empathise with this type of things, because a lot of times we forget what can happen. Like Miguel said, we have to respect a lot each other, to be always responsible, and don’t forget that this is a dangerous sport. All the strength that I can give to the family [of Jason Dupasquier]. It was a difficult day today in the office but I tried to be as focused as I could, try to do the job, and I’m really satisfied about the job that we did.
“The Suzuki team works really well, I was able to make a weekend from less to more, and to find, step-by-step, the good pace, and the good feelings with the bike. Here the goal, is always the podium, but we know that here and these first tracks, for us, we said at the beginning of the season they will be really difficult. We have two podiums at the moment and now there is better tracks for us coming so we are quite optimistic. I think that we will be stronger and stronger and, hopefully, to be always here. So, I’m really happy. Thank you for the team for the work and, yeah, now Barcelona!”
The end of the Mugello race was met with further drama as the podium places of Oliveira and Mir were both deleted and then reinstated due to the pair having triggered the track limits at turn five.
“I didn’t even realise that I was second, until Miguel said to me ‘did you see me go out of the track?’ and I said ‘What?’,” the Spaniard joked about the penalty situation.
“There, is a bit difficult because I didn’t know it, I didn’t realise. In the last lap you go really careful, for this, but I was behind Miguel so I was not able to look so much. I was following the line and I didn’t realise, but it’s true that it’s a double right corner and there’s a small straight in the middle. You go out there and you touch the curb and then the other corner is a right hander, so you don’t go on the right to then go on the left, and with the MotoGP bike, you open the throttle and you wheelie, a lot. I have to see the image and everything but there, for sure, with the MotoGP you are really on the limit. If I go for the green and I overtook Miguel, I can understand.”
Returning to the race, Mir continued “I think that I lost a bit of time with Alex because I was trying to overtake Jack. I was recovering distance with Jack, and then he overtook me a couple of times, quite aggressively. I tried to do my best, then he was able to overtake Jack, I was able to overtake Jack, then I overtook him and then I tried to impose my pace. I lost a couple of tenths and maybe a good couple of seconds but anyway then I recovered the distance with Miguel and Zarco. It’s quite difficult to overtake for us here. I was losing a lot in the first sector, all the straight I was losing a lot of time and also Miguel was doing a great job, especially on the brakes. I didn’t have a lot of chance to overtake him, he was carrying a good speed on the corner and good on the brakes, then it was difficult.
“Especially the Ducati of Zarco, is always really, really fast on the straight, really fast! I was losing a lot of time on the straight with him. He brakes quite hard, turns the bike and then open the throttle with quite good grip and good drive. So it’s a different style, and it’s really difficult for me to overtake them and also, I think, for the Yamaha guys. The KTM power is quite similar. I would not say like the bike of Zarco, but it looks like here, Miguel, he was able to carry a bit more speed on the corners, and to do more normal style. These two bikes are not the bikes that I want to fight in the last lap, honestly, but anyway, both of them made a really good job.”
With Yamaha receiving the new launch device this weekend, Suzuki are now behind the curve in this technology, with Mir hopeful that the situation would be resolved soon.
“There’s a couple of things that we are waiting for” he said. “They are working, something that I knew, but at the moment we don’t have it. I know that the team is pushing to Japan to make it but I don’t know when we will have it. I believe in my team, I think that they are doing everything that they can do, to bring it as soon as possible, because all the new things that we will have, will be really welcome, because we will need it” he concluded.
