Joan Mir: ‘Nobody will overtake if I’m penalised’ for Honda MotoGP team-mate clash

Joan Mir says he is “so sorry” for colliding with Honda MotoGP team-mate Luca Marini in the Valencia Grand Prix sprint, but feels “nobody will overtake” if he gets a penalty.

The 2020 world champion was trying to recover from a tricky start to Saturday’s sprint at Valencia, after he lost places from 10th on the grid.

In a bid to overtake Honda team-mate Luca Marini at Turn 2, Joan Mir locked the front of his bike and crashed into the side of the sister bike on lap two of 13.

The incident was to be investigated by the FIM stewards after the race.

Mir was very apologetic for the clash when speaking to the media, but also noted that “nobody will overtake” if he does get a penalty for it.

“Well, overtaking Luca, I lost the front, and I made him crash,” he said.

“As you can imagine, I’m so sorry for this. You never want this to happen. I’m sorry to him, sorry to the team, because it’s not something I’m used to doing.

“It was my mistake, but it was not a crazy move. I was overtaking him, I think I had something more, after what happened at the second corner.

“[Brad] Binder took me out of the line, I lost three, four positions.

“Luca was one of them. And in that moment, I was overtaking, trying to give myself a comfortable position to start the race, let’s say, and in Turn 1, I was super behind him.

“Then I just picked up and I was in parallel to do the braking. Probably it was a mix between cold tyre, second lap, but the braking point was not out of the world.”

Asked if he expected to meet with head FIM steward Simon Crafar, Mir added: “Probably Simon will make me go, I’m sure.

“But I’m not very worried. This is the reality, but what happened is what I said to you. It’s not like this was a corner nobody overtakes in.

“I lost the front for this, and, unluckily, I hit Luca. I think if they penalise this, nobody will overtake.”

Honda “struggling more than expected”

Only two Hondas made it into Q2 on Saturday in qualifying, but Mir was the best of them in 10th ahead of Johann Zarco in 11th.

This weekend has seen Honda struggle “more than we expected”, which Mir blames on track conditions, and admits scoring nine points on Sunday to lose concessions will be harder than anticipated.   

“Everyone in the team doesn’t want these concessions,” he explained.

“We want to say that we could turn the situation around. But, it’s true that this weekend we’ve had more problems than we expected.

“The only one who is able to have something, but nothing out of this world, is me, because we are struggling more than in the previous weekend.

“Myself, my team-mates, we are struggling more than we expected on this track.

“That’s the reality. If you said to me on Thursday if there was a problem to make nine points, I’d say ‘probably not’. But now, I have to do a good race tomorrow to try to lose them.

“Track conditions [are the cause]. I think it’s just this. I made a good qualifying, just three tenths behind the pole position, and I started 10th.

“So, I just made a good lap time, not fantastic, and the conditions are the first thing.

“Then the front tyre, we’re using a softer compound than our normal base.

“With this front tyre I can’t make the difference on braking. Yesterday in practice, I was 1.5 tenths faster than all my team-mates, and today I was like them.

“So, I cannot make the difference, and with the harder compound, I’m able to be stronger naturally.”