Suzuki Ecstar’s Joan Mir was in victory contention until the closing laps of the StyrianGP on Sunday, thanks in no small part to the new ride-height adjuster.

The Japanese marque introduced the addition during Saturday’s FP3 with Mir determined to continue its evaluation throughout Sunday’s restarted 27-lap race after positive first impressions.

Reflecting on his performance - which saw him hassle eventual-winner Jorge Martin from the outset, registering the fastest lap of the race before settling for second in the final six laps - the reigning World Champion was at a loss to see how they’d ever managed without it.

“It was a really important improvement. Now I don't understand honestly how we've been able to be that strong at the beginning of the season without it,” Mir said from Parc Fermé.

“I'm really happy. It's an important podium, especially important because the team, in Japan, they work really hard and finally to have this reward with a podium, and fighting for the victory here in Austria, is a really great reward for the team. I'm really happy and proud of them.

“I tried to give the maximum out there but Jorge was really strong. I was able at the beginning to stay there, I was really comfortable behind. Then I had a couple of moments going wide and under braking I lost all the chances in two laps, because I was wide two laps in a row,” he admitted.

“This device is not an advantage compared to the others, is just to start with the same condition than the others. Now we must continue improving this device, because it's only the first prototype. It can be improved and there's margin.

“Then we must work on the details of the bike. The others were using this device for a lot of time, means that we need more information, but to make the race today, it's good information, a good step. We didn't expect to use it all the way in this weekend because it's a new item, that in Japan they were not able to test a lot, because there was no time. I had in my mind that I wanted to use all the laps to try to give more information, and happy that finally this works.

“When you fight against a Ducati, is always a challenge, because they accelerate so fast, they stop the bike really well and our advantage is in completely the opposite. In this track there are more of these things than the things that normally work for our bike. I tried to give all in the first laps, you could see that first/second sector in the straight I was losing a lot, then I would try to recover the third and fourth sector. Then at the end, with a used tyre, I was losing even more acceleration, the tyre was a spinning and they were getting really good drive grip, so I will try to improve a bit more for next weekend,

“Before, you always think that the Ducati's will drop at the end of the race, the tyre, but nowadays they never dropped. So I knew that if I didn't have that speed at the end of the race, it will be really, really tough, because where they gain the time, they are also saving tyre in that time, because acceleration is good, the braking is good.

“In the first part of the season, the best thing that we could aspire, the best position was the third position, was to arrive on the podium but now I was able to be close to the victory. This is the most positive thing, more than the position at the end, or the podium, is the performance. Our performance has increased and this is the most important thing.

“It was close today, but it was not enough. I think that we must keep learning and we must keep improving on the bike. My skills, our package, everything, to try to be stronger and to try to fight for the victory next weekend.”