Joan Mir equalled his best result of the year in the Algarve GP with the Suzuki Ecstar rider celebrating second after his strongest weekend.

While the former champion acknowledged eventual race winner Pecco Bagnaia was in a class of his own on Sunday, Mir remained pleased with his entire weekend of work at the rollercoaster circuit. Running strongly from the outset and recording his first front row qualifying performance on Saturday.

“Honestly, I’m so happy,” Mir said from the Portuguese paddock. “I’m especially happy about this podium. Not for the result, is more for the weekend that we did. It was unbelievable. I felt so good in the first moment and I was able to be competitive from FP1, then everything, like Pecco said, when you feel great with the bike and the base is good, everything came easily.

“It’s what I needed, a weekend like this one. With the weather conditions more normal, trying to do more laps with my bike in good conditions. So thank you for the team to give me the package here to fight for the pole position, to fight for the victory also.

“Today Pecco was just better than me and he was able to ride in a more effective way. To be on that pace I was doing more mistakes than him, he was not making one. I was waiting all the race but it was not coming! So well done for him, for his team and let’s move to Valencia.

“I’m very optimistic about Valencia,” he said looking ahead to next weekend’s final round. “Is a track that normally I’m very strong, with this package that looks a little bit better than what we had in the middle of the season. I think that I will be able to fight for better things.”