The first round of this year's hotly contested MotoGP Rookie of the Year title ended resounding in favour of Joanꦇ Mir.

The Suzuki rider ran as high as fourth on has way to finishing the Qatar Grand Prix in eighth, thus scoring eight points๊.

That was eight points more than any of his fellow rookies manag🔜ed after Fabio Quartararo (Petronas Yamaha) and Francesco Bagnaia (Pramac Ducati) suffered incidents and Miguel🔯 Oliveira (Tech3 KTM) crossed the line in 17th.

While fifth-place qualifier Quartararo was fighting back from a pit l♋ane start, Mir was in the thick of the action with the likes of Andrea Dovizioso, Marc Marquez, Alex Rins, Cal Crutchlow and Danilo Petrucci.

"I learned a lot 💧from all of them. I didn't expect to be fighting with such great riders," said Mir. "This is why I'm really happy."

The Spaniard, w♔ho arrives in MotoGP after just a single year in Moto2, blasted from el꧂eventh to sixth on the opening lap of his first premier-class race.

"I was more excited th꧒an nervous. The first laps were really good. I was able to be strong and fast with the top guys.

"Then at the end it was a bit of a shame the tyre was completely fini🐽shed. We thought that we could finish the race but it was not enough. The last two laps I was suffering a𓆏 lot.

"But I'm happy.ꦜ We were fighting with all of them."

Mir soaked up as much information as he could 𓂃from the establisജhed riders and the most important lesson was clear.

"Save the tyre… Save the children, save t𓆉he tyre!" he joked. "Save the tyre is the most important thi𝓡ng. Also how Dovi is able to manage a race, he is really good at doing this.

"I was there behind with all my senses [alert] to see what they were doing, what not, why they 𒉰push, why they stop.

"I thought that I was saving the tyre, but sincerely inside of me I know that I could do it better. So I have to force a littlꦏe bit more the front and conserve꧅ a little bit more the rear tyre.

"On the💧 brakes you don't consume a lot the tyre. It's w♎hen you are on the gas. But now I know a bit the way that I have to follow and it's good."

During the race, two things became clear about this year's𒐪 GSX-RR: It has incredible corner speed, but suffers badly on the straights with Rins and Mir falling often victim to the faster machines around them.

"Yeah, the top speed we missed a little bit," Mir said. "The Honda has made a good step forward, also ꦦthe Ducati is really strong on the straight. The Suzuki is closer from last year to this year, but still a little bit more. So we are growing."

Mir crossed the line 5.0s from race winner Dovizioso and 4.5s from team-mate Rins,💃 in fourth.

Quartararo fini🍸shed as the next best rookie, ten seconds behind Mir in 16th place, after stalling on the warm-up lap.