Mir 'working on the most difficult part'

Four races into his MotoGP career and rookie Joan Mir is discovering more of the secrets of the premier-class.

After an impressive eighth on his debut in Qatar, the Suzuki rider has failed to score since, including a fall in Sunday's Spanish Grand Prix.

That accident occurred, Mir believes, because he was caught out by his front tyre overheating while riding in a group.

It's a problem raised in the past by braking-dependent Honda and Ducati riders, with the RCVs (and possibly others) now thought to have a dashboard warning light to highlight the issue.

"I couldn’t show my potential in the race. I was behind a group and the front tyre overheated which made it difficult for me to stop the bike," Mir said on Monday.

"Because there is less air, you go in the slipstream and the front tyre does not cool enough. It gets softer and difficult to stop the bike. I was wide ten times during the race which was really difficult.

"But when I was alone with a gap [ahead] suddenly I could make a good lap time. Then I arrived at the group and went wide again. I crashed because of this. I saved it a lot of times but I couldn’t [save that one]."

Monday's post-race test then saw Mir try and fine-tune his riding style in what he feels is the most critical area.

The former Moto3 world champion, fast-tracked to the premier-class after a single season in Moto2, explained that while corner exit performance is largely limited by the machine, the rider makes the difference on corner entry.

"I am working on the most difficult part which is the corner entry because on the exit the bike pushes to the limit, but in the entry of the corners you have to put the limit on your bike and this is where you can make the difference," he said.

"We have to work on braking and corner entry… I am trying to brake as hard as I can and pick up the bike soon. Braking later with speed to open the throttle smoothly."

Mir, who set the sixth fastest lap time, did not try the new GSX-RR swingarm or swingarm device tried by team-mate Alex Rins at the test.

"No new parts, but a lot of changes on the electronics and trying to make me more comfortable with the bike," he said.

"We also worked on having more in the fast lap but when we put in the new tyre at the last exit, I did one lap but in the second lap I almost crashed again hard so I said I’ll stop here and go home safe."