MotoGP: Joan Mir: “The victory came at the perfect time”

Joan Mir took his first-ever MotoGP class win at the European GP in fine style, a Suzuki 1-2.

Joan Mir has led the MotoGP championship since Aragon, however, some have said he does not deserve to be the champion unless he wins a race, he has done so in fine style at the EuropeanGP, silencing these armchair critics.

In a Suzuki 1-2, the first since the 1982 German Grand Prix at the Hockenheimring, which was actually a 1-2-3 of Randy Mamola, Virginio Ferrari and Loris Reggiani. Alex Rins and Joan Mir were able to lock out the first two places on the MotoGP podium, elevating Rins’ championship position to tie with Fabio Quartararo on 125 with Quartararo ahead on race wins.

This victory for Joan Mir was fought for hard, he saw the win and Rins on the horizon and knew he had to pounce on him to take the win and pounce he did, capitalising on a mistake by Rins which sent him wide, Mir overtook his teammate and never looked back, opening up a healthy lead over his teammate to secure the race win.

The win will have taken some pressure from the shoulders of Mir, no longer is he being looked at as the ‘champion without a win’ as if it is meant to demoralise someone who is a potential world champion, their name being added to the list which includes Giacomo Agostini, Mike Hailwood, Valentino Rossi, Freddy Spencer and many more when the title is finally won.

Mir confirmed his happiness saying, “The victory came at the perfect time, today was the day for it, I am very happy, I was already happy before the race as we had a really good weekend.

I found something on Saturday in the wet conditions to qualify well, we were also very good in the warm-up. I had something more than the others and could show this, I have no words.”

He was not supposed to overtake Rins when he did, however the opportunity arose and he is a racer, he sees a gap and he goes for it, “I wanted to wait a bit more to overtake Alex [Rins] as I felt my pace was better than his, it was difficult to maintain this focus and think about the tyres, you never know the perfect moment, so when I saw Alex go wide I took the opportunity.”

Speaking about his title lead and how he manages to handle this he said, “It is important to be smarter than ever, we have a great points advantage, this victory has decided the championship, it is not done but it’s a lot better for us than before the race. I will try and win again next weekend, if not I will try to score points.”

All Mir needs to do next weekend is stand on the podium, a feat he has achieved 7 times so far this season.

Featured image – www.motogp.com