Joan Mir reckons he received a penalty in the Malaysian grand prix for his clash with Johann Zarco because he is a “rookie”.
The Spaniard was forced to take a long-lap penalty with two laps remaining after he was involved in an incident with LCR’s Zarco as the Frenchman tried to pass the struggling Jack Miller ahead, resulting in him dropping to his eventual tenth place finishing position behind Danilo Petrucci.
Zarco dived to the inside of the Aussie at Turn 14 with three laps to go, but was unaware of the Suzuki doing the same to him, causing the pair to touch which then saw the Honda crash out and retire.
Mir believes that his newcomer status played a key part in him receiving a penalty, and that “it was the easiest thing to do” in the circumstances.
“I was trying to come from the back and recover positions, I went for the inside but Johann (Zarco) also wanted to overtake Miller and we both touched,” said Mir.
“I don’t think he saw me coming and we couldn’t avoid the touch, so I don’t think it was my fault.
“I got the long-lap penalty because I’m a rookie, this was probably the easiest thing to do but I don’t think it was correct and we have to talk about this because it wasn’t my fault.”
Zarco: “It’s a shame” to lose strong result
Zarco meanwhile was disappointed to lose a solid top ten result in only his second event with the LCR Honda squad, having made great progress with the RC213-V since the Australian GP at Phillip Island last weekend.
He ran comfortably in the top ten throughout the 17 laps he completed, and was challenging Miller for eighth at the time of his incident with Mir’s GSX-RR.
Zarco explained that while “fun”, his battle with the Pramac Ducati backed the pair up into the chasing riders behind.
“I wanted to fight and overtake Jack (Miller) because Fabio (Quartararo) had a few problems trying to get past him, and after he got past he pulled away so I wanted to do the same.
“I had a good fight with him (Miller) which was fun, but we both lost time to the guys behind so they caught up. So then with three laps to go I wanted to overtake Jack (Miller) at Turn 14, I dived for the inside but Joan Mir tried to go down the inside of me as he didn’t expect me to try and pass (Jack) Miller.
“His bike then went in front of me and I couldn’t do anything, it’s a shame but we need to keep in the mind the good pace I had in the race, my level is on the way back and this is the most important thing for me.”
