‘You can’t fight for podiums like this’: Joan Mir’s warning after Catalan MotoGP

Honda’s Joan Mir says his ride to second at the MotoGP Catalan Grand Prix will be hard to repeat because he was “very on the limit”.

The 2020 world champion was rapid in the restarted 12-lap Catalan Grand Prix last weekend, which was red-flagged twice due to separate serious incidents.

The Honda rider muscled his way into the podium battle early on and took the chequered flag in second, though he was later docked 16 seconds for a tyre pressure penalty.

Though the result was scrubbed from the record books, it marked Joan Mir and Honda’s first podium of the season.

While Mir was pleased with the result, he noted that the way he had to push means “you cannot fight for a podium every race like this”.

“This is what I was looking for in the first five rounds,” he said in the TV broadcasters’ set after the race.

“But you know, as you could see in the race, I had to ride very on the limit.

“And this is something that you cannot fight for a podium every race if you ride like this.

“You can fight for a top six, a top seven, but to fight for the last step with these guys, you have to make something more.

“And here is where we have to improve. Honestly, so happy about making the podium here in Barcelona. It’s not the best race track for us, and we’ve been able to make a very good race.”

Could Joan Mir have won the Catalan Grand Prix?

VR46 Ducati rider Fabio Di Giannantonio ultimately won the race, with Mir believing he missed his shot by taking too long to overtake Pedro Acosta for second.

“Well, honestly, I had to be very focused behind Pedro,” Mir added.

“I let him do all the hard work at the beginning of the race. He was riding very good.

“Also, our riding becomes very similar, so I didn’t have to make a huge effort to follow him.

“But, yeah, then probably DiGia was riding in a different way and you struggle a bit more to follow.

“For me, the key point in the race was when I took too much time to overtake Pedro.

“But I was making sure that I was not crashing. So, I wanted to be calm.

“I wanted to not make any mistakes. Then DiGia overtook me.

“I saw that there was a bit of gap where Fermin was.

“And when I saw that Fermin was approaching, I overtook Pedro.

“But I think I had something more to fight with DiGia for the race. But before running, you have to walk, and it’s ok.”