MotoGP: Joan Mir plays it smart for the title fight

Joan Mir has admitted he struggled in the closing laps of the Teruel GP and instead of pushing, played it smart and took the points on the table.

Yet again, despite starting from P12, Joan Mir was able to stand on the MotoGP podium, cutting through the pack in the early laps to make his way into the podium positions, this time taking third place and extending his championship lead to 14 points.

In the final few laps though he seemed to struggle to close the gap to teammate Alex Rins who was ahead of him, admitting that he did not have the best feeling on the bike, opting for points over the gravel trap.

“It was a tough race, it’s never easy to start from the twelfth position, I was able to make a good start and do a great job at the start, I lost some time with Zarco as he was very strong on the brakes, it was hard to overtake him, the power of the Ducati is always a ‘nice’ thing.” Said Mir, grinning about the power of the Ducati which was the only thing it was good for at the Motorland Aragon circuit.

“Once I overtook him [Zarco], I was able to maintain the same speed as the front riders, but not ride faster, I did not have the best feeling on the bike in the last laps which was a shame but we will try to do more at Valencia.

Before the race I was not even thinking about the championship, just to ride 100%. When I was struggling at the end of the race with the front, I said that maybe it is not a good idea to try to catch the front riders, It was a clever way to manage the race and let’s think about the next one.”

With just three races to go, Joan Mir leads the title by 14 points but is yet to take his first premier class victory which is surely going to start to affect him mentally, it is a large possibility that he could be crowned the champion without winning a single race all season, an incredibly impressive achievement which would prove he is a worthy champion given that he was able to win a title via consistency and not the odd win or two with some bad results in between, however for his own peace of mind, he will want to win a race or three.

Featured image – www.motogp.com