Reigning MotoGP world champion Joan Mir says he is “satisfied” to have reached the podium for the second time this season at Mugello despite “not shining” during the event.
Mir enjoyed a strong run throughout the Italian Grand Prix to recover from ninth on the grid to round out the rostrum positions in third, the Suzuki racer also pressuring eventual runner-up Miguel Oliveira across the closing laps though he ultimately wasn’t able to find a way through.
The Spaniard says that his “good potential” with used tyres was the key to his fight-back through the field in the closing stages, adding his rostrum was “like a victory” considering the long 1.1 kilometre straight the Italian venue houses.
He also explained how tough he found it hard to “do the job out there” following the tragic news of Moto3 rider Jason Depasquier’s passing just hours before the race, remarking that he and his peers were “humans as well as riders.”
“It was one of the most difficult races of my career, not only for the difficulty to make a podium here but also because of what happened yesterday,” said Mir.
“I’m satisfied with my weekend overall because I wasn’t shining a lot during the event but I showed quite good potential with used tyres, so all the work I put in with used tyres was worth it so I could control the spinning really well, this helped bring me to the podium today.
“This is like a victory for us here at Mugello, the team have done a great job to get us here.
“I want to send all my strength to Jason’s (Depasquier) family, it was difficult to do the job out there because we are humans as well as riders so I’m really sorry about what happened.”
Mir rued the relative lack of power of his GSX-RR compared to his Ducati or KTM rivals in particular, the one-time premier class race winner explaining how he had to “make a strategy” in order to pass if he came across more than one of his competitors at once.
“If you can find one KTM or Ducati alone on track you can make a strategy, but if there are multiple it is a hard job because you have to defend and attack at the same time and it is really difficult.
“We gave it 100% and luckily it paid off for us, we tried to exploit our strengths and to try and work a lot on our weak points so it was tough to do anything more with what we had today.
“I didn’t realise I touched the green on the last lap, I was really close to Miguel (Oliveira) so I couldn’t gain anything to overtake but it’s OK we’ll pay attention to this going forward.”
Mir’s tricky title-defence currently sees him sit fifth overall in the riders standings and 40 points down on leader Fabio Quartararo after six contests so far in ’21, his second rostrum of the campaign moving him ahead of the second factory Yamaha racer of Maverick Vinales in the table.
Team-mate Alex Rins is only 13th overall following his fourth successive crash from a top five position at Mugello, now 42 points down on Mir and a formidable 82 from the top of the title tree ahead of this weekends Catalan GP encounter at the Circuit de Barcelona Catalunya.
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