The 2020 world champion has ꦍfinished in the points just once so far this season, an eleventh place in the Portimao season-opener.

Mir’s cause wasn’t helped by a sprint race injury in Termas, ruling him out of the Sunday race, but he heads into this weekend’s French Grand Prix just 20th in the wor💝ld championship.

Meanwhile, former Suzuki team-m♔ate Alex Rins ღis eighth in the standings for the LCR Honda team, with two podiums and a victory in COTA.

But Mir insists it hasn’t been tougher than he exp♏ected:

“No, it's exaღctly how I ex൲pected,” Mir said. “You always want more and you start very optimistic and everything, but I knew that the start always is difficult.

“I remember my start in 💙Suzuki, being a rookie, without experience, one year in Moto2 going there, with a bike that in the first year is not easy until you find something.

“It's a little bit similar si🌠tuation, but with more experience, and also knowing what I want to be fast. Sooner or later, we will reach the position that we deserve, I know.”

Mir scored points in just one of his opening five MotoGP races for Suzukiꦆ in 2019, and missed 🐓two mid-season rounds due to injury.

But he fought back to deliver a strong finish to the year, followed by his first podiums, win and 💮the world title in 202🌞0.

Mir heads to this weekend’s Le Manꦜs round having qualified 20th and then crashed out of both the previous 🙈Jerez races.

“With the hot temperature, we have a problem that every time I try to push, to c👍arry more speed in the corner, I lose the front. So the limit is there for my style, for how I approa💟ch the corner,” he explained.

“We just have to be patient and to find a solution. It's not that I'm not trying, but it's like there's a limit there. Because if the🎉re isn't, you don't crash. So we just have to give me [something] tha⭕t allows me to make the corner.”

The Spaniard then spent the Monday test at Jerez trying to incre🦋ase confidence in the front, having suggested that their base setting might also need changing.

“The base that we have is a base that we made race by race, and being also a rookie [on t✅he Honda] in Sepang [test], without knowing the bike a lot. So maybe we 🐓have to go back a bit,” Mir had said.

The 25-year-old also retried a different RCV chassis durin𒈔g the Monday test, when he was 15th fastest.

“We wanted to make a back-to-back with a different chassis that we tried in the preseason, and my feelings were a bit better,” he said. “Maybe all the crashes that I ha🐟d were a bit related to 🐼that, and with the other chassis, I was able to feel a bit better.

“Then when I said that, we put new tyres, and I destroyed the bike in Turn 6! Not destroyed the bike but I lost the front in Turn 6. So that complicated a little bit the day, because then I had to go with ꦿthe base and work on some geometry and stuff.

🧸“So I could find some intere𝔉sting stuff, but I couldn't put it all together.

“But I think we made a small step in confidence. The🍬 priority was to improve the feeling with the front. And now my impression is that even if I didn't put a soft tyre, I was always with mediums, my confidence with the front improved and I was able to carry more speed in the corner.

“So that's something that I'm happy about because during the [race] weekend, I wasn't able to turn the bike with more corner speed, li🐈ke my style. And now more or less the direction is a good one to follow. So let's see.”

Opening practice at L🏅e Mans takes place on Friday morning🍎.