Suzuki rookie Joan Mir believes MotoGP bikes suit him much more than Moto2 machinery after his first tests.
Mir, the 2017 Moto3 champion, was picked up by Suzuki after just a single season in Moto2 – in which he was sixth in the championship but did not win a race.
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He impressed in the Valencia post-season test – which followed a private outing on the GSX-RR at Motegi – by lapping under a second off the benchmark time in 14th position and 0.460s slower than team-mate Alex Rins.
Mir said he had quickly realised MotoGP and Moto2 were “completely different” bikes and felt his swift move out of the intermediate class would be quickly vindicated.
“The MotoGP is a racing bike, the Moto2 was more a road bike,” Mir said.
“The Moto2 has a strange way to ride the bike, in a different way than normally in MotoGP or Moto3 or some other bikes.
“With this bike I can more show how good I am on the brakes, this is my feeling.
“With the Moto2, normally when I was trying to brake hard – this is one of my stronger points – I was going wide and I could not open the throttle and I was struggling a lot with this.
“With this bike, it looks like it helps. [MotoGP is] more fun, this is for sure. For me especially.
“I didn’t have any doubts about getting into MotoGP. I don’t miss Moto2 at all.”
Mir added he was “surprised” to be so competitive so quickly, but felt he could have gone even faster.
“There is still a margin and I think it could have been a lot better,” he said.
“We have done everything more intensely. There was a moment when we didn’t have any more tyres left.
“On Tuesday I said that I would like to go down a second and I went down a second.
“We have a good pace, which is what I’m happiest with in the test.”
Mir says his goal for the Qatar season opener next March is to finish within 20s of the race winner, and then “start to cut the distance”.