Joan Mir: Zarco’s “brilliant” Le Mans win “difficult to watch from hospital”
Joan Mir admits it was "difficult being in the hospital watching" as Johann Zarco took Honda's first MotoGP win since 2023. "Because I thought I could fight with him."
While LCR’s Johann Zarco was celebrating Honda’s first victory since 2023 at Le Mans, factory rider Joan Mir was undergoing medical treatment for a fracture to his right hand and neck pain.
Mir suffered the injuries when he was caught up in a first chicane tangle between Enea Bastianini and Francesco Bagnaia, which also sent Zarco spearing through the gravel.
But while the worsening weather played spectacularly into Zarco’s hands for an emotional home victory, Mir was left not only injured, but with his seventh non-score of the season.
“A victory is always important,” Mir said of Zarco’s achievement at Silverstone on Thursday.
“Zarco did a very good job to maximise the points and not do any mistakes… He bet everything on ‘red’!”
While Zarco had been among the minority of riders to stay on wets for the restart, Mir pitted for his dry bike on the sighting lap.
That means, had he not been taken down, he would have needed to join the likes of runner-up Marc Marquez in making a mid-race swap for his wet bike.
“From my point of view, probably I would have had the opportunity to fight for the podium – but not for the victory,” Mir said.
“Because I always feel great in mixed conditions, and during the warm-up I was [fastest] and feeling great with the bike.
“When Marc, Pecco and the other guys were going in [for slicks at the end of the sighting lap] the track was dry.
“Zarco continued [on wets] and probably thought he’d lost the opportunity of winning the race when he was on the grid, because the track was completely dry.
“But he was good, because he continued with the rain tyres in the dry while other people said, ‘OK, I f**ked up, I’ll go into the pits for slicks’.
"Zarco was smart. He used his experience. And he maximised everything that he could do. So it was a brilliant victory.
"Honestly speaking, it was difficult being in the hospital watching this! Because I thought that I could fight with him, realistically.
“But anyway, I was happy for him. Happy for Honda. And hopefully this weekend we can get another opportunity.”
Should the unpredictable Silverstone weather throw up another opportunity to shine, Mir is confident his injuries won’t hold him back.
“I feel good. The neck problem took more days to recover from with the physiotherapist. Then I have part of the finger broken.
"But this is not a big issue. It’s something that you don't need surgery for. It's just a matter of hopefully small pain on the bike, that I will have to deal with.”
Whatever the weather, Mir’s priority is to score his first Sunday points since round two in Argentina.
“For some reason, we couldn't put a good result on a Sunday, “Mir acknowledged. “For my mistake, for bad luck, for different reasons.
“I think also in the rider standings, we are not in the position that we should be for this reason.
“We are not scoring points. But in the other hand we are always fast on Friday, Saturday. We are always there.
“So for me it's important to finish Sunday in the points and hopefully stop with this bad situation.”
Peter has been in the paddock for 20 years and has seen Valentino Rossi come and go. He is at the forefront of the Suzuki exit story and Marc Marquez’s injury issues.
