Joan Mir had a particularly difficult day today in the farewell to Losail, the circuit that will host the first round of the MotoGP world championship. The rider woke up weak, apparently sick, and was unable to dedicate the time he would have liked to testing, considering this a day to forget.
‘Today I woke up super tired, didn’t feel well and then I did the first outing around 3 pm (local time in Losail) and then we had a problem with the bike, we stopped and then I vomited, at that moment, and we decided to stop. I rested a bit and later I tried again but I didn’t feel well, and I think I will be like this for a few days. In the last outing, I crashed, and honestly today was a day to forget: we couldn’t test many things because of my condition and we lost a bit of this day, it was a shame,’ the Spanish rider from Repsol Honda Team revealed, who then looked at the competition, which he saw improve:
– Everyone improved a lot today. Yesterday we were more or less with the group and even with competitive times but the truth is that everyone improved today and I couldn’t stay out there giving 100%. We didn’t take “that” step, that’s the issue… I expected, with the time I did yesterday with the medium tire, much more and today with a new, soft one, I was unable to attack the 51-second mark, and it was also impossible due to my situation. It was a shame and there are many things I wanted to test, confirm, but probably we need four or five more days of testing to understand more things, or maybe not, because they improved a lot [laughs].
Then followed an analysis of the bike, where improvements were seen, although in direct comparison to the opponents… it falls short: ‘Overall, I feel better on the bike, the feeling with the front is much better. We probably have the same problems but we’re doing faster times, that’s the situation… the lap time is a little better. Certainly, it’s not fantastic compared to the others, but we took a step forward. The acceleration is also better compared to last year but it’s true that at the moment it’s our weak point’.
And he concluded, with a somewhat negative anticipation of what will be the first round of the year: ‘In these tests, we improved in terms of aerodynamics, we do fewer wheelies, and they brought another fairing with more downforce and that’s positive, something good, but the pity was not being able to check everything again and be on pace with the guys, set a good time and arrive at the race more prepared. It will be a tough first round and we know that this track is difficult for our bike but we will try our best’.
