Mir: “Nothing positive” came from MotoGP practice in Indonesia

The 2020 world champion was one of the strongest riders through practice for the Qatar weekend, though tyre problems left him struggling to sixth in the race.

His start to the Indonesian GP weekend wasn’t as strong, with technical issues thwarting him in the afternoon, while yellow flags on his final flying laps on soft rubber stopped him from advancing on a lowly 20th.

With weather forecasts predicting rain to potentially affect FP3, Mir could be locked into a volatile Q1 qualifying group that includes both factory Honda riders and Ducati’s Francesco Bagnaia.

“Honestly, today, FP2 was tough,” Mir said. “We had some problems, some mechanical issues and also some trouble with the front brake.

“It was not the best FP2. Then with the soft tyre I was not able to improve the lap time because of the yellow flags.

“Every time I was coming faster there was one yellow flag on track and I had to slow down. Nothing positive about this FP2. There’s not much to say.”

Joan Mir, Team Suzuki MotoGP

Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images

Mir added that the mechanical issues – which he wasn’t able to explain – hadn’t cropped up before.

He also noted that the alternate rear tyre casing – which is from 2018 and is designed to cope with extreme heat better – was making it “difficult” to get the medium option to work.

“No, the mechanical issues were different things,” he said.

“The first exit was something different that I cannot speak a lot about.

“About the rear medium, it’s difficult to make that tyre work for us today, especially I was not able to make a lot of laps due to these problems.

“So, I think this tyre is getting better and better and you have to do laps, and this was not positive today.

“The positive thing today was when we put the soft back in, the feeling came back even if there are some problems.”

Suzuki team-mate Alex Rins sneaked into a provisional Q2 place at the end of FP2, but is currently battling illness.