The 1 on 1 smackdown is where we drag the ancient Greek historian Plutarch down to our level by using his methods to compare two MotoGP riders after each race. This time we take on our most difficult task yet, contrasting Suzuki’s similar Spanish stars Joan Mir and Alex Rins at Portimao.
Portimao
The swooping Portuguese roller coaster is a fairly recent addition to the MotoGP calendar, but it’s already one of the best tracks. The huge elevation changes and blind corners make for an exciting race. Especially exciting if you arrive at a fast, downhill corner to find a downpour of rain you weren’t expecting.
Mir versus Rins
It’s easy to forget which is which out of these two. They’re both on Suzukis and they’re both Spanish. They’re both very quick. Both are nice guys too. Joan Mir is a double world champion with one Moto3 and one MotoGP title. Rins hasn’t won a championship yet, but finished runner-up in Moto3 and Moto2.
Spaniards
Alex Rins is from Barcelona, capital of Catalunya. Former world champion Alex Criville is from Barcelona, while the likes of the Marquez and Asparagus brothers and Dani Pedrosa come from nearby towns.
Joan Mir is from Mallorca, which is more or less an island outpost of Catalunya where they speak a dialect of Catalan. Mallorca is where the brilliant, super-smooth, sour-faced, non-YouTuber Jorge Lorenzo hails from. Not a huge difference, then, but it’s a start.
Two riders, one mojo?
For some strange reason, usually either Rins is quick and Mir is disappointing, or the other way round. So they seem to share a mojo between them and only one of them gets to use it at a time.
In 2020, Mir was the most consistent rider on the grid. In fact, Mir was one of the only consistent riders on the grid in a year where everyone else spent the whole time veering wildly between hero and zero. He took just a single victory, but it was enough to win the title in the madness of 2020. (2020 was the plague year where planet Earth was assaulted by a plague of power crazed politicians and over-promoted bureaucrats). Joan Mir became one of the most forgettable world champions ever, but they don’t give out world titles in cornflake packets. You can’t even get them in those stupid, rigged claw machines where you have to try and pick up a cheap, badly made soft toy with that crane thing.
Rins was also pretty decent that year and also took one win, but could only manage 4 podiums to Mir’s 7. This left him a respectable 3rd in the title race.
The Portimao race
Joan Mir got a great start, led the race for a spell and was running in 3rd place until he was rammed by Jackass Miller. Like Bradley Smith in the first 10 metres of a 24 hour race, Jack’s ambition outweighed his talent. He crashed on the brakes and took Mir out. This was a nice irony as Mir has collided with Jackass many times. The boot was on the other hand for Jackass this time.
However, Alex Rins was one of the stars of the race. He started from 23rd place in the half-injured rookies and talentless younger brothers section of the grid. An outrageous first lap saw him overtake 13 riders. We’ve seen Marc Marquez do similar feats, but if it was Marquez then at least 8 of those 13 opponents would’ve been upside down in the gravel trap and on their way to hospital. Rins continued his charge to finish an incredible 4th.
This year’s championship
Alex Rins is running an excellent 2nd in the title race and is in the form of his life on this year’s brilliant Suzuki. Joan Mir is down in 6th place and looking as unlucky as the guy behind Uccio in the queue for the all-you-can-eat buffet. Can Alex become champion and give the little Suzuki team the honour of having 2 world champs on its bikes? If he keeps riding like this, and the 200 Ducati riders on the grid keep shooting themselves in the feet, then yes.