Mir sunk by braking misery

Joan Mir began the Aragon MotoGP from ninth on the grid, just ahead of eventual race runner-up Andrea Dovizioso.

But within the space of four laps the Suzuki rookie was 21st and last as he struggled to stop his GSX-RR, leading to contact with Jorge Lorenzo, a broken winglet and trip through the gravel.

"When you can't stop the bike on the brakes in the first laps you go wide and a lot of riders overtake you," Mir said. "Then I touched with Jorge, lost one winglet and went into the gravel in the last corner.

"I was last by far. Then I started to do my pace and recovered a lot of positions," added Mir, who eventually finished in 14th.

"It was a shame, because I think we made a big step forward this weekend. We had pace to be fighting for the podium, or top five minimum, and it was not possible because of this problem at the beginning.

"We have to see why this happened and solve it in Thailand, because it's what we are missing to be fighting for the podium. Nothing more.

"The pace lap by lap, I was quite comfortable riding in 1'49s when I was completely alone, then overtaking, in the low 1'50s, so it was the right pace to be in front, but again bad luck for us."

Pressed on the braking issues, the young Spaniard explained:

"All my overtakes in the race, none were on the brakes. Sincerely, we have to fix this if we want to fight for the positions which we deserve.

"The problem was more behind other riders. Normally the slipstream makes stopping the bike a bit more difficult, but not like this. I don't know if it's the front tyre or something, because riding alone I was fast."

Mir is 13th in the world championship and on course to finish the season as second-best rookie behind Fabio Quartararo, with a 20-point lead over Francesco Bagnaia (Pramac Ducati) and Miguel Oliveira (Tech3 KTM).

Team-mate Alex Rins finished ninth after an opening-lap clash with Franco Morbidelli.