Joan Mir wins the MotoGP title with a tense but risk-free seventh place in the penultimate round at Valencia, becoming Suzuki's first grand prix world champion since Kenny Roberts in 2000.
Joan Mir sat in a patient, secure second but took advantage of a small error from Alex Rins to take his first ever MotoGP win in the European MotoGP, round twelve of the 2020 championship.
Joan Mir left it to the final seconds of the warm-up session to head into the race with the best time of the weekend as the class enjoyed their first taste of dry track time ahead of the European MotoGP at Valencia.
After two wet days, world championship leader Mir heads a dry morning warm-up for the European MotoGP at Valencia as riders and teams worked frantically to find a dry set-up and chose tyres for the race.
Joan Mir strengthened his MotoGP title lead with third-place in the Teruel Aragon race, meaning he will take a 14-point advantage over nearest rival Fabio Quartararo into the final three rounds.
MotoGP world championship leader Joan Mir doesn’t expect Suzuki to discuss team orders until Alex Rins is mathematically out of the title chase. Rins gave Suzuki its first victory of the season at last Sunday's Aragon round, but is only seventh in the standings and 36 points behind Mir.
MotoGP world championship leader Fabio Quartararo finished Friday at the Aragon Grand Prix with a sore hip, but in a competitive second on the timesheets between fellow Yamaha riders Maverick Vinales and Franco Morbidelli.
Not for the first time this season, MotoGP title contenders Maverick Vinales and Joan Mir exchanged some hand signals after crossing paths on track during day one of the French Grand Prix.
Asked ahead of this weekend's second Misano MotoGP round, Fabio Quartararo was asked if he was worried about the Suzukis, given their podium form at such different tracks as Red Bull Ring and Misano:
After claiming a debut MotoGP podium then holding a confident race lead during the Austrian MotoGP rounds, Suzuki's Joan Mir is 'excited to see what I can do' at Misano.
Joan Mir may have been bitterly disappointed not to at least claim back-to-back MotoGP podiums in Austria, but after five races he's seen enough to know that the GSX-RR is 'a contender for the title'.
With four different winners from the opening five races, and reigning MotoGP champion Marc Marquez ruled out of contention, the 2020 title race looks wide open.
"I was gutted for Mir because he was riding really strong. I tried to follow him for nine laps, but that was all I had. I was done. Unless he had tyre problems towards the end, he had that thing sorted."
Suzuki's Joan Mir spent almost the entire Andalucia MotoGP 'looking' at the podium. A debut rostrum remained just out of reach, but having crashed out one week earlier, Mir was happy to put points on the board and equal his career-best finish of fifth place.
In the aftermath of the financial crisis, two manufacturers withdrew from the MotoGP World Championship; Kawasaki (end of 2009) and then Suzuki (end of 2011). Kawasaki hasn’t been back, focussing its racing efforts on WorldSBK, while Suzuki returned to MotoGP at the end of 2014.
Joan Mir will spend at least four seasons as a Suzuki MotoGP rider, with a recent two-year contract extension keeping him alongside Alex Rins until the end of 2022.
Joan Mir had finished pre-season testing for his rookie 2019 MotoGP campaign with the twelfth fastest lap time, 0.789s from the top and 0.404s behind team-mate Alex Rins.