Suzuki Ecstar’s Joan Mir sat third in the combined MotoGP practice times at Portimao despite a challenging day in wet conditions.

Constant heavy rain showers disrupted the opening day of preparations for the Portuguese GP with the majority of riders waiting until the closing minutes of the morning session before setting their target lap times. 2020 champion Mir utilised the confidence found as the conditions improved to of just that, a 1’51.031 on his 17th and final FP1 effort sat him second, three-tenths shy of Repsol Honda’s Marc Marquez, with only Pol Espargaro bettering in the afternoon.

“Looks like a wasted day!” Mir said from the sodden paddock. “Anyway, I felt the important thing on these days is to get the correct feeling and the feeling is there when I want to push and I’m able to set a good lap time so this is always important.

“I feel strong, just that it was a shame that FP2, I wanted to ride more in wet condition but honestly, on the surface there’s a lot of water and sometimes you have aquaplaning. So is a bit difficult situation and also because the rain was not super, super strong today so if it is stronger, it will be hard to ride.

“We will try to survive in FP3,” he continued looking ahead to another day of expected rain. “In FP3 and FP4 and then to try to set a good lap time in qualifying. This type of a weekend, when the weather is like this, is always difficult to be constant. So we will try to be constant, to be always there and to make a good lap on quali.”