Álex Rins completed his first day as a Monster Energy Yamaha rider in MotoGP on Tuesday. He finished in 19th place in the tests in Valencia, while his teammate Fabio Quartararo set the 12th fastest time.
The Spanish rider shared his first impressions of riding the new bike: ‘I felt very comfortable with the bike. We divided the day in two ways: this morning I just put Fabio’s race setup and did laps after laps to understand the bike, to find the right position with the handlebars, footrests, and everything. And then in the afternoon, we focused a lot on doing laps, testing the new fairing. Yamaha brought two different fairings and as far as I know the bike, one of the two fairings works better than the standard one. I was very happy with the test‘.
According to Rins, his initial impressions are that the Yamaha YZR-M1 is a smooth bike: ‘I felt the bike very smooth, honestly – more than I was expecting in terms of acceleration. We still need to adapt the electronics to my riding style and throttle management. But I felt very… not slow, but not aggressive. It’s normal‘.
Asked if the popular views that the Yamaha fits particularly well with his riding style are confirmed, #42 replied: ‘I think at this moment the difference between the V4 engine and the inline four-cylinder is not the biggest difference in the bike. At this moment the biggest difference is aerodynamics. It makes you turn better, honestly, because with my experience with other bikes, or for example with Yamaha today… this morning I was riding with the standard fairing and with windy conditions I had a lot of wheelie and entering the corners the bike was turning well. But I was only complaining about the wheelie. And then we tried a different fairing and I felt less wheelie and better cornering performance. So, I believe that now the difference between engines disappears‘.
