With the season finale left on the calendar, the run for the title has ended with Joan Mir securing the crown in Valencia.
Joan Mir wins the 2020 FIM MotoGP World Championship
With the Valencian Grand Prix closing its veils, Joan Mir of Team Suzuki Ecstar celebrates his run as the 2020 FIM MotoGP World Champion. After six podiums and a victory in the Europe GP, the Majorcan was 37 points clear coming into taking two at Valencia. A seventh-place finish defended to the final corner assures him the crown, with Mir becoming the first Moto3 Champion to win the premier class title and the first to win it for Suzuki in 20 years.
In 2020 pre-season testing, Mir – and Suzuki – had many talking as the Hamamatsu factory put in some impressive performances. But fast forward a few months to Jerez as competition re-started. And the duo had a tough first outing as Mir crashed out in the Spanish GP. Next time out the Majorcan took fifth to get some points on the board before Brno saw another DNF dent his title hopes – but not for long.
From Austria onwards, everything came together. A first MotoGP podium in second place prefaced an impressive performance in the Styrian GP where the race was Red-Flagged with Mir in the lead, that seeing him ultimately take fourth.
The Majorcan bounced back with three podiums in a row in the San Marino, Emilia Romagna and Catalan GPs. He gained traction in the Championship before another tough race in Le Mans briefly halted his momentum as Mir took 11th, lacking experience of the conditions. Fabio Quartararo (Petronas Yamaha SRT) and Maverick Viñales (Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP) also battled in the edges of the top ten, but it was far from lost.
MotorLand Aragon was up next and Mir was immediately back on the podium, taking two third places. With the first, he also took the Championship lead and arrived into the Gran Premio de Europa as now the clear favourite for the crown, but there was something missing.
That something was a first MotoGP win which, despite getting close, the Majorcan had not yet taken. That changed when the premier class headed out to race in Valencia for the first time in 2020 as Mir put in a sublime charge to the flag; cool, calm and collected to take a valuable 25 points and a MotoGP winner’s trophy – putting him 37 points clear heading into the penultimate race weekend of the season.
It was a tough Saturday in the Gran Premio Motul de la Comunitat Valenciana as he qualified 12th, but as the lights went out for his first match point, the Majorcan soon got to work to move into the top ten. Next, it was the top eight, and he only needed a handful of points as his closest challengers ended up off the podium. Mir kept it pitch-perfect to assure himself the crown, taking seventh place and crowning himself the 2020 MotoGP World Champion.
JOAN MIR (Team Suzuki Ecstar)- As It Happened
I will probably need a shower to understand the situation! It’s something I’ve been fighting all my life. Since I was ten years old I had this dream and I never stopped until I got this title. So what can I say? I can start saying thanks to a lot of people who’ve stayed with me. Not only this year but also in the past, to make me who I am and achieve this result. I want to thank first my family, and then Suzuki and the opportunity they gave me in 2018. And now in 2020 two years later I’m the World Champion! I didn’t expect it honestly. I expected it further in the future! But we’ve got the title and now it’s ours, so I’m happy!”
How did he feel before lights out?
“The important thing is that I was looking calm, and looked without pressure, but I wasn’t calm and without pressure, I was just super nervous, which is not a bad thing! The truth is that this year was especially difficult because we didn’t just have pressure on track but also at home to not get the virus. It was especially difficult to manage, and thanks to all my crew who managed it in the perfect way.”
When did he start to believe he could win the Championship?
“Styria was the first race where I was really competitive, fighting for the victory. Probably after Misano and Barcelona, then I thought, ‘wait, maybe I’m not only fast in Styria and I’m able to maintain this feeling with the bike!’ For me, that was the moment I realised I could do it.”
And how does it feel to become the first Champion for Suzuki in 20 years, joining an incredible history?
“For me, this was the reason to sign with Suzuki. For me, to win a title with any manufacturer is unbelievable and the main target. But I was quite brave in that moment to go with Suzuki. I didn’t expect this potential with the bike in the second year. I expected it further forward. For me to win with Suzuki has something extra, not just this year, but to get a title with Suzuki means something more than normal.”
And what if, in his Moto3™ rookie year, he’d been told he’d be MotoGP™ World Champion just four years later?
“I would have said you were crazy! Race by race, year by year I was getting faster and getting used to the bike quickly. It made my progression so fast, and that was the key to take the MotoGP title in my second year. We probably sacrificed a year in Moto2. I would have liked to spend two years there but that wasn’t ideal so we took the correct decision to come up to MotoGP after my first year in Moto2.”
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