Joan Mir '70% prepared', set to stick with 2020 chassis

Joan Mir starts his MotoGP title defence having been ranked seventh on the combined timesheets during official testing in Qatar.

While the Suzuki rider didn't make an appearance at the top of the timesheets and wasn't ranked higher than third at the end of each day, his Thursday (day 4) average pace was a match for anyone, as the stats complied by Chris Pike illustrate:

Nonetheless, Mir feels the loss of day 5 due to a sandstorm means he is only 70% prepared for the start of the new season, at the same Losail circuit on March 28.

"I feel 70% prepared because we planned this final day to perform in a better way, not to try a lot of things. To adjust a bit more the electronics, to work more for the weekend.

"The problem is that the first three days we tried a lot of things, but most of them were more to try and develop for 2022. Then, these two final days, yesterday and today was more to focus on performance, on the race.

"We could see yesterday that I was able to make a step, talking about race pace, I was able to be quite strong. Today was the day to make a long run, to make a time attack and it's something that we were not able to do."

The lack of testing time also means Mir is set to park the new GSX-RR chassis, at least for now.

"Probably we will go with the same one as last year. The new chassis probably performs quite well, but we need to make a good setup for it and probably we won't have the time," explained the Spaniard.

While Mir feels they will be in the battle for the opening race weekend, he concedes they are not currently the favourites.

"I think that the Ducatis are really fast, the Yamahas, this is a track that fits so well for them. Also for us, but probably we are not as strong as them, especially some Yamahas," Mir said.

"We are one of the fastest, but not the fastest. For sure I am not 100% satisfied because I am not the strongest at this test."

Team-mate Alex Rins was a fraction behind Mir for eighth on the timesheets, both within 0.65s of Ducati pace setter Jack Miller.