Unhappy Joan Mir critical of MotoGP stewards after his Valencia penalty
Joan Mir was unhappy with his penalty for a collision in the sprint
Honda’s Joan Mir claims the explanation he was given by the FIM MotoGP stewards after he was penalised for a collision in the Valencia sprint “confirmed” a “lack of consistency”.
The 2020 world champion wiped out his Honda team-mate Luca Marini on the second lap of Saturday's sprint at the Valencia Grand Prix, after he crashed on his own into the side of the Italian.
Afterwards, Joan Mir felt he shouldn’t get a penalty, otherwise “nobody will overtake” again.
The stewards did award him with a long lap, which he served on Sunday in the grand prix on his way to 13th.
When asked on Sunday about his meeting with chief FIM steward Simon Crafar, Mir raged: “Was very funny, because he said ‘no, this action, we will penalise you’.
“I said ‘ok, can you put up the video please of what happened with [Ai] Ogura in the Sachsenring?’
“He said ‘yeah, we can put’. Ogura Turn 1 in Sachsenring, he crashed, he hit me and we finished both on the ground. [I asked] did you penalise this in Sachsenring.
“He said ‘no’. [I asked] will you penalise me? [He said] ‘yes, in Sachsenring we made a mistake, because we should have penalised’.
“So, this confirmed the lack of consistency in the penalties that we don’t understand.”
Crash understands Mir’s comments are not completely accurate, as the stewards explained that Ogura was not penalised because he was not attempting an overtake in that collision.
In that incident, Mir was already wide at Turn 1, while Ogura lost the front-end while on the normal racing line.
Mir, on the other hand, was overtaking Marini at the time he crashed and collected his team-mate.
Pramac’s Jack Miller was similarly unhappy with the stewards’ decision to penalise him for a collision in the sprint with Fermin Aldeguer.
Mir and Miller are the first open critics of new chief steward Simon Crafar, even though his approach in 2025 has been widely praised by the grid across the campaign.
Mir battled “massive, unexpected” tyre drop in Valencia MotoGP
Long lap penalty aside, Mir’s grand prix on Sunday was hindered by an unexpected drop in grip from his rear medium tyre.
“I had a lack of grip from the beginning,” he said.
“I don’t really understand why. Then I was going down in the last 10 laps, like a massive drop.
“I don’t think I’ve ever had as big a drop in my life as this, losing that much performance in the last part of the race.
“But these things can happen. We will understand why, because I don’t have any answers today.
“I don’t know. It was super unexpected. I made a lot of laps working this weekend on tyre management, and I had a massive drop. We will try to understand to have some answers.”
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.
