World Champion Joan Mir was on for another podium celebration at the first MotoGP race of 2021 before the speed of the Ducatis denied him.

Having started the Qatar contest in a steady vein from his 10th place grid spot, the Suzuki quietly made his way though the pack, with the help of his teammate Alex Rins. Circulating in seventh for the majority of the mid-race, Mir began making moves on lap 15 and was sitting fourth, with his eyes firmly on the podium, three laps later.

The Spaniard’s determination saw him swiftly take third, then second in the closing two laps as he battled Pecco Bagnaia and Johann Zarco for position. Taking a wide sweeping line onto the final straight in an attempt to avoid the full force of the slipstream from the Ducatis behind him, he ultimately slipped to fourth on the line, the power of the Desmosedici’s his eventual undoing.

“I feel good, it was a positive race for me,” Mir explained from the paddock. “I made a step this morning in warm-up and I regained my feeling with the bike - a bit late, but finally we get it - so that was the most important thing.

“The bike worked so well today, and I’m really grateful to the team. I tried to start less and at the end push hard because I know that here the tyre drop is quite big. I managed to get the most from the bike and the tyres, recovering places and managing well, so it was positive overall.

“I’m happy with how it worked out even if it would’ve been great to finish second. But I had a feeling those Ducatis would overtake me on the straight in the slipstream, and I’m still satisfied with fourth.

“In a normal situation, the ideal thing was to not try to overtake Zarco. To have a slipstream on the straight and try to defend the third position but it’s the start of the season and we have to take a bit of risk.

"I overtook Zarco in the last sector, and I said, ‘Well, if I finish second, that will be great, but I know that I have two angry Ducatis behind and will be hard’. Then I saw the finish line really close and then both rockets overtook me, so it was a bit frustrating but I gave 100%.

“Next time I know what I have to do. It’s true that I went a bit wide but normally, if you go wide and nobody overtook you, then you can get more speed at the end because you stop the bike, you go wide and then you come back with more speed. Today it was not enough.

“The qualifying is important, but also it looks like I’m comfortable starting the race in the fourth row,” the Spaniard joked before continuing.

“It was a difficult weekend, because I was not able to have a great feeling, you could see on my face every session - I’m not really good at hiding these kinds of things - but at the end we found a way, a bit late, but we found it.

“During the test you try a lot of things and maybe you get a bit lost in some parts. For some reason I was not able to stop the bike, I had a lot of problems yesterday in qualifying, it was so difficult. I was pushing like an animal and then the lap time was impossible, was never coming, it was so frustrating and I was so angry. Today, we change a little bit, we found Saturday night, some setting that we were using last year and all the problems that we were having made quite a lot of sense with the specs that we were riding at the moment. So we changed something that I cannot say, and then everything came back.

“When everything is right, I’m really relaxed, but when something is not working and we are not able to find the correct means and I try harder and harder and harder, I get so angry and it’s in these cases you have to control a lot yourself. Yesterday after the qualifying, I would like to take everything and destroy everything but I know that this is not the correct thing. The team just want the best thing for you but now I smile, even when the Ducatis overtake me on the straight!

“I was a bit surprised because I expect one Ducati not two, but Pecco always was there. They are unbelievably fast on the straight and also, both riders ride in a really good way. Their bike here is an animal but the riders made an unbelievable job to manage this power.

“This is not the result that I always expect” Mir concluded “and I showed on the last lap that I didn’t want the third position. I want the best result possible because I want as much points now as I can collect, but I’m so happy about the feelings. Now I was again riding in a good way, I was again stopping the bike in a good way. I was turning great and clean, not like all the weekend. We’ll take what we learned and go for next weekend. I’m feeling positive and ready for more.”