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The reigning MotoGP world champion Joan Mir says he is struggling with a “strange” braking problem in the last sector of the Sachsenring, which contributed to a tough German Grand Prix qualifying.
I didn’t make it straight into Q2 from FP3 on Saturday morning in Germany and was only able to get a bad 17th place on the grid in qualifying.
The Suzuki rider says he has problems braking on the last two corners of the track and explains that the high temperatures force him to use the hard front tire and this prevents him from “flowing” on the GSX-RR.
The Sachsenring’s twisty layout was expected to play in favor of the Suzuki, but I admits he’s struggling to make the latest sector improvements because “it’s not the Sachsenring I was expecting”.
“It’s really strange, to be honest, because the temperature is obviously very high, but we never drove the hardest tire in the classification,” explained Mir.
“The Suzuki usually works pretty well with the medium and we use the H-front so I don’t think this is the way to go because we probably have to be smooth and everything with the Suzuki and when we need it. “A harder mix in front of us doesn’t flow quite well.
© Gold and Gans / Motorsport Images
Joan Mir, Team Suzuki MotoGP
“So it’s not about the tires. It’s more about the setting of the bike.
“We have improved a lot compared to yesterday, we improved by almost a second over a distance of 1:21 minutes.
“That means that there is room for improvement, but of course that is difficult because I didn’t expect the Sachsenring and that’s why I am like that.”
I was caught unluckily by yellow flags in Q1 as well, which meant that two of his laps were canceled and he fell back to almost three-tenths outside of a Q2 spot.
“To be honest, nothing went right today,” he added. “Then there was the other problem with the yellow flags.
“They canceled the two laps I had, one lap that was just before P2, and then when I started doing the second it was another yellow flag.
“It is so difficult to set the lap time, but I understand that having someone around is a problem. Today was not our day. “
The starting grid of the MotoGP Germany Grand Prix
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