One of the images from Saturday in Portimao was seeing the two Repsol Honda riders go out together first for Q1, with Joan Mir in front and Marc Marquez in his wake. Behind the 2020 world champion, the Catalan did a spectacular lap beating the circuit record with a time of 1’37″675, a time that practically ensured him a place in the fight for pole. Marc decided not to return the favor to Mir, neither on the first nor on the second run, in which he remained in the pits.
In the end, Marquez managed to get through to Q2 and take pole, while Mir was unable to get past the first qualifying session, he started from 14th on the grid and in the first laps he touched Fabio Quartararo, ending up on the ground. When Mir was reminded that Marc hadn’t returned the favor, the Honda rider admitted he didn’t expect anything from anyone.
“It’s clear that the help is always very good. I expected to be able to get through to Q2 with my time, but even if I hadn’t given Marc the slipstream I wouldn’t have lowered my time, which he managed to do instead behind me. It’s normal that he didn’t return the favor because he had fresh rubber for Q2, which helped him fight for pole. The truth is that I don’t expect anything, but for next time I know how I have to handle these situations, absolutely not because it’s Marc. I simply won’t give the slipstream just to give it, because I’m the first to need it.”
Joan Mir, Repsol Honda Team, Marc Marquez, Repsol Honda Team
Photo by: Miquel Liso
Faced with this situation, Mir has to be a little smarter: “Yes, but it’s the first weekend, we need to understand how the new format works, which tire to put in front, trying to catch the slipstream is a virtue Marc has, who in a complicated day, with a similar pace, he got on the podium and I didn’t finish the race”, he complained.
Could Marc’s result be encouraging or demotivating for his teammate? According to the Majorcan, it’s anything but demotivating: “It’s encouraging, because it means that the bike is capable of doing it. It’s clear that in tomorrow’s race there will be more laps and then we’ll see the true potential a little more. Today is went wrong due to qualifying, and Marc has understood this very well for a long time, he knows perfectly what he has to do and how to do it, this is what we have to learn from him”.
The new format of the weekend saw a very aggressive Sprint: “It’s clear that right now I’m very excited about how the race went. Today’s Sprint was madness. I lived the first lap… it was a track where it’s very difficult to overtake and the riders from 10th to 15th place wanted to win on the first lap. It was really crazy. I like the format, but it’s complicated, there’s more risk, now the weekends are more risky.”
Finally, the 2020 world champion explained his contact with Fabio Quartararo which ended in a crash for the Honda rider: “It can be seen clearly from the images, Quartararo tries, as in every corner, to overtake someone, he remains there without pass, opens the trajectory a bit, I pass him on the inside and when he comes back I fall.I don’t think it’s Fabio’s fault because he didn’t see me, but it’s not my fault either because I was driving on the line, I didn’t cross the line and I didn’t go against him. I don’t expect a penalty, far from it,” said Mir, who was summoned by the stewards to study the action.
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