Ecstar Suzuki’s Joan Mir began preparations for the Portuguese MotoGP at Portimao with a replacement crew chief after Covid-19 reared its ugly head once again.

The reigning world champ found himself in the experienced hands of longterm Suzuki man, and test team master, Tom O’Kane after Frankie Carchedi tested positive for the virus and was forced to isolate in Andorra.

A steady start due to the damp conditions saw Mir circulating in 13th after morning practice with the 23-year-old firmly finding his feet during the afternoon’s dry and rapid session. Repeatedly challenging towards the head of the times, Mir concluded the day third overall, neatly ahead of his teammate Alex Rins, and confident with the improvements made so far.

“I said before the start of the Grand Prix that I hadn’t managed to show my potential here last year, or the potential of the bike, but straight away today I felt good” Mir explained from the Portimao paddock. “The Suzuki works well at this track and I feel confident after today - I have the sensations that I want and need. The conditions weren’t the best and it was quite slippery, but I think tomorrow it will improve and everybody will be faster. Today we made sure our base was good and then we just had to adjust little things. I was able to be strong with all tyres, and then when we put the soft one in we could make a decent lap time. I’m happy for that and we will keep working for tomorrow.

“This will be a completely different weekend from last year, because last year we had a problem with an engine and this made everything worse on Saturday. Now, I feel great with the bike, I’m able to ride in a good way and with the feelings that I want, not the ones from last year. Alex also is strong, which is also important.”

Commenting on Carchedi’s absence from the Portuguese weekend, Mir elaborated “I’m pretty happy about the situation now. With Frankie at home it’s difficult but we are managing in a super good way. Tom is a super experienced person and he just wants to do his job and that’s it, and this is something that is really important. Frankie is in the background, Tom and Frankie speak a lot about the situation, about how everything is going, and also with Claudio [electronics engineer] and we are doing a great job at the moment.

“It is a shame because he did everything in a good way” the Spaniard continued, “and this virus is super unpredictable. It’s a shame but I know that Frankie is in one room, isolated, and he is working like an animal, probably more than normal because, any distraction, he has nothing, just to focus on the work! I speak with him, we made a FaceTime after every session to explain a bit the feelings, also with Tom, they speak a lot, with Claudio, and yeah, we are doing great.”

Returning to the day’s action, Mir concluded “The track today was not really grippy, was a bit worse condition than last year but I was able to feel the new tyre, and is positive. I’m happy for that. I was able to improve almost one-second. Let’s see tomorrow with more grip on track - maybe there’s more grip, I hope so! We will ride probably one-second faster, more or less than today and then let’s see the feelings in that condition because at the moment is okay.’