Joan Mir: “It’s a big shame”

After enjoying by far his best weekend of a torrid debut season at Repsol Honda with fifth place in India, Mir was brought back down to earth by 13th place in the Motegi Sprint (from 15th on the grid).

But the 2020 world champion took advantage of the Sunday rain to rocket up the order to seventh place, after swapping to his wet bike.

With the rain worsening, and his visibility depleting, Mir suddenly dropped to 13th on lap 12, when the red flags were waved.

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“I had some visibility problems with my helmet unfortunately, it’s something I have never had in the past and today was the day,” he said. “It’s a big shame, I couldn’t see so I was missing my reference points on track.

“When I was fighting with Miller I could see a bit, but then the rain came heavier, and it was enough to stop me.

“I’m really disappointed because I think we showed that there was some good speed there and we could have done something more.

“Now we have a week off to train and recover a bit before we go racing again.”

Team-mate Marc Marquez finished in third.