Mir battling “strange” braking issues in German MotoGP qualifying

Mir failed to make it directly into Q2 from FP3 on Saturday morning in Germany and could only manage a season-worst 17th on the grid in qualifying.

The Suzuki rider says he is struggling under braking in the last two corners of the circuit, explaining that the high temperatures are forcing him to use the hard front tyre and this is stopping him from “flowing” on the GSX-RR.

Sachsenring’s twisty layout was expected to play into the Suzuki’s favour, but Mir admits he’s finding final sector improvements hard because “it’s not the Sachsenring I expected”.

"We’re still missing a lot in sector four, I’m struggling to stop the bike. I have a lot of lock on the front and then I don’t make the corner," Mir explained.

"It’s a shame because in all the rest of the track I’m fast but we miss in that sector – we miss a lot in that sector.

"The problem is that here we are all really, really close. It was a shame.

“It’s really strange, honestly, because of course the temperature is really high, but we never raced with the hardest tyre in the allocation.

“The Suzuki normally works pretty well with the medium and we are using the H front, so this means that I’m not really agreeing that is the correct way because probably with the Suzuki we have to be smooth and everything, and if we need a harder compound in front we are not flowing quite well.

“So, it’s not about the tyres. It’s more about the setting of the bike.

“We improved a lot from yesterday, we improved like almost one second on a 1m21s track.

“So, it means that there is margin to improve, but of course it’s difficult because it’s not the Sachsenring that I expected and that’s why I’m like this.”

Joan Mir, Team Suzuki MotoGP

Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images

Mir was also unlucky with yellow flags in Q1, which led to two of laps being cancelled and dropping him to just under three tenths outside of a Q2 spot.

“Honestly, nothing went really right today,” he added. “Then there was the other problem of yellow flags.

“They cancelled the two laps that I had, one lap that was close to P2, and then when I start to make the second one it was another yellow flag.

“This is so difficult to make the lap time, but I understand that if it’s someone on the ground it’s a problem. Today was not our day.”