The second race in a double-header at Misano in San Marino provided thrills, spills, and yet more twists and turns in the MotoGP World Championship battle. Team Suzuki Ecstar leave Italy with another podium under their belts thanks to a great second place from Joan Mir. The 27 lap race got underway under blue skies despite a downpour around an hour and half before the start of the Emilia Romagna GP. Joan Mir and Alex Rins had an uphill struggle from their start positions of 11th and 18th respectively, but the pair made clean starts and tried to settle into a rhythm early on.
Mir, feeling good with his GSX-RR, managed to get into eighth place by the second lap of the race, and by lap six he was already into the Top 5. Opting for the medium-medium tyre combination, this came into its own as the laps ticked by. By the eighth lap of the race Mir was beginning to reel in the riders in front of him. This gap remained around two seconds as he played the long game. Able to ride smoothly and conserve his tyres, with five laps to go he was well and truly in the podium fight. Executing a fabulous pass on Quartararo for third place three laps from the end, before swiftly over-taking Espargaro for second. This marks four successive Top 4 placements for Mir and puts him just four points from the title lead.
The race was tougher for Rins, who struggled with feel since the beginning of the weekend despite a great fifth place last time out. He chipped away and tried to settle into a good race rhythm. The important thing was to score as many points as possible and he managed to collect 12th place to keep himself in the fight.
Ken Kawauchi – Technical Manager:
“It was a good race for Joan, but not so good for Alex. It was great that Joan was able to get second position today and I want to say thank you to him, to all the team and for our people working from home for this result. Alex couldn’t show 100% of his potential in this second race at Misano, but we’ll check all the data and see what we can do in Barcelona next week.”
