MIR TAKES MAIDEN MOTOGP WIN
Joan Mir takes maiden MotoGP win – Photo: LAT
In his home country of Spain, Joan Mir broke through to take his maiden premier-class MotoGP race victory and now has one hand on the title after an attritional affair.
By DAN McCARTHY
In just his second MotoGP season Mir has been the most consistent rider and in taking the win at Circuit Ricardo Tormo, he now leads the championship by a comfortable 37 points.
The 2017 Moto3 champion led home the first Suzuki 1-2 finish since the German Grand Prix in 1982.
His teammate Alex Rins took the lead on lap 2 and led much of the 27-lap encounter. Until he made an error, running wide at Turn 11 on lap 17 and allowed his teammate Mir to snatch the lead.
Pole sitter Pol Espargaro led the opening lap and kept the two Suzuki’s honest throughout, eventually finishing the race a credible third on his factory KTM.
Australian Jack Miller took a risk electing to run the hard compound front-tyre on his Pramac Ducati, nevertheless, the Queenslander did enough to finish the race in sixth position.
Just in front of Miller were two fellow satellite MotoGP riders, Honda rider Takaaki Nakagami and Miguel Oliveira in fourth and fifth respectively.
Despite serving a long-lap penalty for knocking Miller out of the previous race, South African Brad Binder recovered to finish in seventh.
Many of Mir’s championship contenders faltered and finished well outside the top five positions, almost handing the 2020 title to Mir and Suzuki on a plate.
Andrea Dovizioso finished the race in eighth, the factory Ducati rider lacked speed all weekend and couldn’t improve during the race.
Petronas Yamaha rider Franco Morbidelli elected to run the hard compound on both the front and rear, the decision did not pay off and he finished the race outside the top 10 in 11th, just ahead of Stefan Bradl.
His teammate and former championship leader Fabio Quartararo finished the race in 14th after the Frenchman fell off his Yamaha on the opening lap. He remounted and inherited several positions from riders who failed to greet the chequered flag.
Maverick Vinales on the #12 factory Yamaha started the race from pitlane as a penalty for taking on a sixth engine. The Spaniard was unable to make real progress, like Quartararo he picked up the pieces and finished in 13th, 25.4s off the race winner.
Alex Marquez, Francesco Bagnaia, Cal Crutchlow and Aleix Espargaro all crashed out of the race, while the remaining riders including the returning Valentino Rossi all suffered mechanical issues which forced them to retire.
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