One Honda rider's Hungary MotoGP exit linked to another Turn 1 clash
Joan Mir suspects damage from an earlier Turn 1 collision with Enea Bastianini contributed to his Balaton Park MotoGP exit.
Joan Mir believes damage sustained in an earlier collision with Enea Bastianini may have contributed to his crash in Sunday's Hungarian MotoGP.
The Honda rider was running in eighth place when he fell on lap 15 of 26 at Balaton Park.
Earlier, Mir had been involved in contact with Bastianini after the Tech3 KTM rider rejoined the racing line following a mistake at Turn 1.
Both riders stayed upright, with Bastianini was later handed a long-lap penalty for the incident.
“The foot peg was loose”
Mir revealed the impact caused damage to his RCV and suspects it may have played a role in his later crash.
“It was quite damaged,” Mir said of his bike after the Bastianini contact.
“I think I crashed for that reason, because the foot peg was loose. We have to see, because the crash was quite strange.
“I was behind Diogo [Moreira] without doing anything special, because I was having problems with the front pressure.
“I had the alarm that the pressure was very high and this was making an attack on the other riders impossible.
“So I was waiting a bit for a mistake by Diogo and Jack.
“I think I had something more, but that crash was unfortunate.”
Honda “removed some question marks” in Hungary
Mir acknowledged that the race presented a missed chance after several front-runners were eliminated in a Turn 1 accident triggered by Jorge Martin.
“Today was a good opportunity to score points; due to what happened at the start, there were a lot of fast guys that could not complete the first lap.
“So it was an opportunity.
“We didn't take the opportunity, but we removed some question marks during this weekend for the setup.
“We were using a setup from the past in today's race and I was able to ride again in a better way. So that is the only positive this weekend,” he explained.
“We tried a different setup in the front fork for Barcelona, but Barcelona is a specific track, the temperature, everything, and there it was working well.
“Then we made Mugello and here. And today we went back to the standard one and it was by far better.
“I could attack more the front as I want.”
Team-mate Luca Marini finished fifth as the leading Honda rider, while LCR rookie Diogo Moreira secured sixth place.
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