Will Suzuki win the championship for the first time in 20 years?
Surprise MotoGP championship leader Joan Mir says “it is not our plan to win the title” as a “really crazy year” comes to a conclusion.
Mir, 23, has not won a race all season but has a six-point lead at the top of the standings with four races left.
“There are a lot of riders with more pressure than me to win the title,” Mir says.
“When I signed with Suzuki it was to fight for the title – but not in the second year.”
With the dominant six-time champion Marc Marquez missing most of the season with a broken arm, the 2020 season has been the most open and unpredictable in years.
Eight different riders have picked up a win in the 10 races so far, with Mir’s Suzuki team-mate Alex Rins winning in Aragon last weekend. The field are back at the same circuit this weekend, with the concluding season in Portugal on 22 November after two races in Valencia.
| 1 Joan Mir (Spa) 121 pts | 2 Fabio Quartararo (Fra) 115 |
| 3 Maverick Vinales (Spa) 109 | 4 Andrea Dovizioso (Ita) 106 |
Mir has been second on three occasions and leads the standings from Fabio Quartararo as he looks to become the first Suzuki rider to win the championship since Kenny Roberts Jr in 2000.
“I was only three years old – I didn’t know what Suzuki was,” Mir says. “Now it is a different story.
“It has been a really crazy year. We haven’t had time to think about anything.
“We thought that maybe we could challenge in year four, five, or even more, when the bike is ready.
“Now it looks like the bike is ready, the rider is ready, sooner than we expected. It’s going well.”