MotoGP Le Mans: Joan Mir: “It is hard to find a good setting and work for the race in these conditions”
Joan Mir has admitted he has struggled a little today with set up due to the wet conditions causing problems for everyone.
FP1 today in Le Mans was a completely wet session which by the end had a track which was slightly dryer, giving riders the chance to improve their times, then in FP2 they rode on a track which was nearly dry, meaning Suzuki were unable to get data which was truly reliable due to how different the sessions were.
Joan Mir set a time of 1:44.980 in FP1 before demolishing this in FP2 with a 1:35.385 time, 9 seconds faster. This means that the data in FP1 and FP2 is pretty much obsolete, it can be used but if conditions change once again then these two sessions will not have taught Suzuki too much about what they can expect race day.
For context, the lap record at Le Mans in MotoGP is 1:31.185 set by Johann Zarco in 2018, therefore they are running 3 seconds slower than normal. For Mir this proves to be an issue, he is currently chasing the championship whilst trying to improve his qualifying at the same time, however, is unable to find a great setting to approach the qualifying session.
Speaking today he said, “We tried FP1 with a wet track then FP2 a nearly dry track so we rode in mixed conditions today. We are 3 seconds behind the normal lap times in completely dry conditions, it is hard to find a good setting and to work for the race when you are going 3 seconds slower.
Tomorrow we have a good chance in FP3 to continue improving the settings and get everything on point to have a good qualifying.”
Suzuki know that qualifying is majorly important for them to take a step forward and win races, Mir has only qualified in the top 6 twice this season, the rest of the races he has started around P10.
“It is important to work on the dry setting, it will be hard to work everywhere, we need to do a lot of things to prepare the bike for the race, I need to do a race run to understand how I feel with the bike, temperature and tyres, there is a lot of work to do tomorrow.”
Featured image – www.motogp.com
