Joan Mir of Suzuki says he ‘doesn’t respect’ the penalty he received in Sunday’s MotoGP Grand Prix of the Americas following a last-lap collision with Ducati’s Jack Miller.
Mir and Miller were battling for sixth place on the final tour when the Suzuki rider collided with Miller at the Turn 15 left-hander, throwing both riders out wide and allowing Avintia rookie Enea Bastianini to finish sixth.
Mir was then demoted one position for the match, putting him in eighth place behind Miller.
Miller and Mir have already met in 2021, with the two colliding in Qatar at the start of the year – and Mir joked that the Stewards at COTA may have been “on holiday” at the time of the first incident.
He apologised for colliding with Miller, but said he had no choice because the Ducati rider was following “strange” lines, and that the penalty he received was unjust.
“Well, first of all I want to apologise because I don’t like to create contact in overtakes,” Mir said when asked by Motorsport.com to explain what happened with Miller.
“This is the first thing. I was struggling a lot to accelerate, I could not overtake.
“He was a lot slower than me and I had to wait to the last laps to prepare something.
“I did a great manoeuvre in the first sector on the chicanes, I was able to overtake him in a very good way, but then we arrived to the straight and he just overtook me and gave me a couple of tenths [to claw back].
“Then he was just closing the lines, he was not caring about riding, he was just inside the corners, almost straight. But it was a little bit strange.
“In the left one [T15], on that corner it’s a good corner to overtake, then I took the inside and then he in the second part of the braking he [closed the door] and he just made a really tight line that I didn’t expect it.
“I touched the kerb to try to avoid the impact, then I touched him a bit. Luckily, we didn’t crash.
“I think the penalty is completely… I don’t understand it because if all the races are like this you don’t overtake – you just don’t try. The racing will lose its essence.
“Probably the Stewards were not the same ones as in Qatar with what happened to me and Jack, they were probably on holiday. I don’t respect the decision of Race Direction.”
Miller had stern words with Mir on the cooldown lap at COTA, but didn’t later go into much details on the clash – only that it was a “recurring” thing for him.
“What happened was on my last lap, I was last week in Misano, and once again I got hit out and we got passed by two guys,” Miller said.
“So, it is what it is, Race Direction did what they did. There’s not too much to say about it, it’s just a recurring incident.”
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