The Japanese bikes seem to have discovered something in the Indian Grand Prix that was missing until then. However, Joan Mir cannot pinpoint the specific point at which Honda significantly improved to achieve one of the best results of the season.
Still, Mir states that the tests in Misano were more important than they seemed to the press:
– It’s a bit of a mystery. Certainly Marc (Márquez) took a big step. He managed to be a bit stronger than in other weekends, but for me, it was us who managed to take a big step to be at his level. Of course, the tests in Misano were important, not so much for the position, but because I was able to do many laps. And if you look at the last laps of the test, I was very fast with used tires and that means we understood something there. That I was able to regain confidence. And when we arrived at a completely new track, we probably had the ability to adapt faster than others and we were quickly fast.
#36 also stated in the debrief after the long race that, despite everything, he expected to be a bit faster in the race, something that was not possible due to the problem he had with the rear tire:
– We were fast and improved throughout the whole weekend, something I did not expect. I expected to be fast on Friday, but yesterday we qualified very well. That was very good. Then in the warm up, we showed good pace and in the race, we were fighting for the position I expected. Honestly, I expected a bit more, but with this problem (…)
