MotoGP Le Mans: Joan Mir: “I was not able to find any grip”

Joan Mir had a tough race at Le Mans, finishing in P11 but dropping just 2 points from title leader Fabio Quartararo.

Joan Mir struggled a lot at the wet race in Le Mans, his first wet MotoGP race. He had to slow completely at turn one to avoid Valentino Rossi who crashed out at turn 2, demoting Mir out of the points to fight for P17, before dropping back even further to last place.

Thankfully to save his title charge, he was able to find some speed later on in the race to pull it back to take P11, just two places behind title rival Quartararo who scored 2 more points than Mir to extend his title lead to 10 points in total.

He had a tough race weekend, struggling with the free practice sessions and failing to get into Q2 meaning he started the race from P14, jokingly saying, “I found good feelings in the last 15 laps of the weekend, its like that, better late than never.”

He had a tough race struggling to recover after avoiding Rossi, racing without much rear tyre grip and sliding all over the place saying, “Honestly, it was a difficult race at the beginning as I was not able to find any grip, the dangerous thing was going into the corners, this was the problem and I was completely losing the rear.

This was somewhere I was unable to be strong, I was in last place at one point. It was like something wasn’t right, then I got a better feeling in the back of the bike and was able to lap quickly in the last few laps.”

These last few laps may or may not be what wins him the MotoGP title when it comes down to the wire, overtaking Quartararo for P2 in the last few corners before being re-overtaken by Quartararo then Vinales, dropping Mir to P11 instead of P9 which would’ve dropped the championship gap down to 7 points.

Mir was able to find positives saying, “I was able to be competitive in the wet which I am happy about and hope to be competitive again in the wet.” Which is good news going into Aragon where rain is always a possibility at the Spanish circuit, even raining last year before the races.

Featured image – www.motogp.com