Current MotoGP points leader Joan Mir credits “something changing in my mind” during the Austrian Grand Prix event for setting him up for a potential debut premier class title.
The Suzuki pilot leads Petronas SRT Yamaha racer Fabio Quartararo by 15 points with just three races remaining in the 2020 campaign thanks to a run of six rostrum results-double that of any other competitor this season- across the last eight contests, with a possible first victory also going begging in the Styrian GP thanks to a poorly-timed red flag.
The Spaniard crashed out twice across the first three encounters-at the season-opening Spanish GP and the Czech GP respectively- which Mir says led him to try and “change something” in order to get his sophomore season back on track, though admitted he wasn’t sure exactly what changed in his mindset to fire up his string of podium finishes.
Speaking during a recent episode of the In the Fast Lane podcast, Mir singled out the Austrian GP event as the moment where his title challenge clicked, stating that something “changed in my mind” at the Red Bull Ring that paved the way to his recent impressive run of form.
“At the beginning of this year we saw some great potential but for some reason we were not able to do the results, whether it be from crash, something happened,” said Mir.
“After Brno I said okay, we have to change something… I don’t know what changed but in Austria I was able to fight for the podium and to be on the rostrum, something changed in my mind and consciously and-I don’t know how-I was able to achieve a stronger end to the season.
“I am looking forward to getting the championship, which is for sure the main target…I like the way I’m approaching the races, so I’ll just continue like this.”
The ’17 Moto3 world champion added that he believed that the chief reason behind MotoGP’s tight 2020 battle-which has seen eight different winners so far while 14 riders remain in title contention- is due to “all the bikes being really similar”.
“Well first of all the manufacturers, all the bikes, are really really competitive, this is the main difference,” continued Mir.
“This year all the bikes are really similar, also it’s a bit strange, we go for example to La Mans in October in the cold, these things (competitiveness of machines across different weekends) are pretty difficult to understand.
“Nowadays all of the riders are really well prepared too.”
