Joan Mir constant but without wins, sees the title defense more complicated

This year the responsibility for Joan Mir has grown. Aside from being his third season in the MotoGP World Championship, he stepped into the defense of the title he won last year and stopped being a promise to be a sure premier class asset – what naturally leads to more pressure.

The truth is that 2021 did not go as well as it would be desirable for the current champion. The season started with an encouraging fourth place at the Qatar GP for Team Suzuki Ecstar, followed by seventh place at the Doha GP. However, the first podium came after the third attempt at the Portuguese GP with third place.

I even have a steady development behind me – he has failed the top 5 in only three of the nine races so far and has achieved three podium places, all in third place. However, this consistency is not enough to fight for the title at a time when there is a clear dominator like Fabio Quartararo (Monster Energy Yamaha).

This means that Mir is fourth in the championship and is running one of his best campaigns, but is already 55 points behind the leaders. However, he is part of an animated series of five drivers who only split 27 points (a win counts 25) between places two and six.

It cannot be said that the MotoGP season is disastrous for Mir, who after nine races scored only four points less than he had in 2020. However, like Suzuki, it lacks more regular wins and struggles for victories to be a serious contender for this year’s title.

And that has to go through a stronger qualifying performance right from the start, because ninth place on the grid was best achieved in nine attempts. An old Suzuki problem that the latest version of the GSX-RR didn’t seem to fix. The mileage remains strong, but in such a tight field, a low start complicates the task on Sunday afternoon.

It will be the main point that Mir and Suzuki have to work on if they want to get involved in the title fight in the second half of the season, not least because there were no mistakes or major restrictions, other than even less competitive qualifications.