Joan Mir insists “painful” Portugal MotoGP issue not related to sprint DNF

Joan Mir says he received an “alarm” after half a lap of the MotoGP Portuguese Grand Prix before being forced to retire, but insists it was not the same issue that struck him in the sprint.

The factory Honda rider was on course for a strong brace of races at Portimao, having qualified seventh after showing strong long run pace on Friday.

But an issue with the clutch knocked him out of the sprint early on, while his Portuguese Grand Prix was ended with another technical issue.

Honda is remaining cagey on what the problem was, but Joan Mir insists it was not related to the issue that took him out of the sprint.

“Technical issue, unfortunately, again put us out of the race, not the same as on Saturday, but the engineers are checking everything very deeply,” he said.

“It’s painful because we had some potential in the race, but this is what can happen.”

He added: “Well, we made a solid start.

“I could keep the position and then start the race from there; it was a long race.

“I did half a lap, and then I understood something wasn't right. I saw an alarm, and then we had to stop.

“It’s a shame because I think we could do another solid race this weekend.

“But, anyway, these are things you cannot control.

“On the other hand, I know that Honda is doing everything possible to understand what really happened.

“We are not really used to having technical issues. So, it means that something strange happened.

“So, hopefully we understand why, and this doesn’t happen again.”

After a promising weekend, Honda’s best finish in the grand prix was a lowly ninth, after LCR’s Johann Zarco struggled in the latter stages of the 25-lap race.