Joan Mir finished the MotoGP Portuguese Grand Prix race in 12th place. The Repsol Honda rider had some damage to his bike right on the first lap, as a result of a collision caused by Franco Morbidelli (Prima Pramac/Ducati).
The Repsol Honda Spanish rider talked about the extent of the damage to the RC213V: ‘The whole rear part of the bike, the rear wings, and all these things were gone. I didn’t have any of that. Also, the front wing was there, but shaking and moving a lot. And also the exhaust‘.
Regarding the incident, Mir commented: ‘In the first lap I was overtaking, but in a position… I think in those positions you have to stay a bit calm in the first laps and that’s the reality, because it’s a big mess. There are many bikes in front of you and you have to be a bit smart. Morbidelli didn’t, he just came towards me, hit me with a lot of speed, I went off track in turn eight and my race was a bit compromised by this problem‘.
In any case, despite the difficulties he faced, the rider from Majorca considers that he did not have a bad performance in the race and the weekend as a whole: ‘From then on, it was a reasonable race, with a reasonable pace. I managed to overtake all the riders in front of me. Even though I was struggling a lot without the wings to stop the bike – turn one was a challenge, also turn five. […] . But we have to be happy with our race. Honestly, as a rider, I gave it everything I had. I believe I had a good weekend, in good shape, so to speak. So let’s move on to the next one and I hope that in the next one the riders behind will think a bit about the first laps. That would also be safer for everyone‘.
