Largely affected by a lack of top speed and qualifying perfor༺mance in 2021, Joan Mir believe♛s those are problems of the past after finishing day-one of the Qatar MotoGP in third place. 

In fac✱t, Mir claims Suzuki’s much improved top speed has given them at least two tenths, while also making it easier to defend on the straights.

Although 𒀰💙Mir is still not relaxed by the team’s apparent gains, the 2020 world champion is clearly buoyed by the situation he finds himself in.

"Well, I’m never really relaxed. I think I’m always asking for more and this is always part of my ch🐠aracter,” said Mir. “But it’s the first step to make a great season. 

"This gives you confidence because we clearly improved the top speed and we will not have all the 💃troubles in this area of last year that 🌌was really difficult. 

"Like this we can defend better on the straights. This is the firstꦬ step. Then, obviously we had to improve on the qualifyi💞ng, this was another weak point. 

"With all the work that we did last year, with all the work we did on the test and a littl🐲e bit more power, this makes our life a bit more easy. We are able to make a faster lap time, so yeah, really happy."

Part of Suzuki’s MotoGP DNA has always been about focusing o༺n race performance, which has often come at a cost with regards to qualifying. 

But with the improved engine solving part of the problem according to Mir, along with gains that have seemingly been made to the GSX-RR’ acceleration༺, Mir could be in a position where he doesn’t have to rely so heavily on his race pace as was the case in both 2020 and last yea🎶r. 

Mir added: "Qualifying is really important and was our weak point. For sure we improved last year, so with this plus of the new engine which gives you a coup🍸le more tenths that are really important. 

"We were missing a lot of acceleration that with the device (Holeshot) we are now able to 💝be in the same conditions as our opponents. This is really🌳 important."

Mir’s i🧔mpressive performance throughout day-one was backed-up by team-mate Alex Rin🐬s who finished quickest from Marc Marquez.