MotoGP Portimao: ‘I’m ready, I feel stronger than ever’ - Mir

Suzuki Ecstar’s Joan Mir made an uncharacteristic appearance in Parc Fermê on Saturday after qualifying on the Portuguese GP front row.

Famed for being a Sunday rider, Mir has often struggled in qualifying across his premier class career. Saturday’s challenging conditions levelled the playing field with the 2020 Champion navigating them to a successful second position, after Pramac’s Johann Zarco denied him the pole in the dying seconds of Q2.

“I think that today, qualifying was a challenge for everyone,” Mir admitted. “Especially after seeing Q1 - many, many crashes, a lot of doubts between the slick or the rain tyres. I think that it was the right choice to put the slicks in the first moment and then make laps out there and improve lap by lap. The conditions were critical, especially in the first laps but I think that the clear strategy was there, to stay out, even if at the end the soft probably drops a bit after a couple of laps.

“I’m happy for the position and everything but more for the confidence,” he continued. “We are building good confidence since the first race in Qatar and step by step I’m getting better, I get the feeling that I wanted back.

“I think that I’m ready, I feel stronger than ever, honestly. I feel great and to make qualifying lap like this one in these conditions, you need confidence. You need a good feeling with the bike, if not, in this condition you are not able to push at 100 per cent. We’ve done it so I’m happy.

“Congrats to Johann, he was really fast today and let’s see tomorrow. The warm up will be super important to understand where we are. This is a track that I normally enjoy, I get good results in the past so we will enjoy tomorrow.

“You can’t be relaxed but starting in first row you