With direct entry into the second qualifying, the Catalunya MotoGP was looking promising for Álex Rins. However, the Monster Energy Yamaha man had a very different level in the races, and in the main race on Sunday in Barcelona he was only 20th – last among those who finished.
The Spaniard explained that after a good start, problems began in braking for the first corner: ‘It was a really complicated race, starting from the beginning. The start wasn’t bad, I was able to gain some positions in the first meters, but then in the first strong braking, I simply felt absorbed by [Jorge] Martín, the rider in front of me, and I was close to hitting him. So I decided to go wide, take the Long Lap, and then I ended up last. So, I tried not to overheat the tire passing the riders in front to finish the race with some margin’.
Despite the management he tried to do, Rins ended up having setbacks in terms of engine and tires, as he revealed: ‘So, I tried to pass them, I was riding at my pace, but at 13 or 12 laps from the end I started to suffer from the engine response. I was keeping the throttle in corners 4, 9 and 12 and the revs weren’t rising properly. It was something with the injection. But we also had a lot, a lot of problems with the rear tire. From corner to corner, I couldn’t open up 100% because I was sliding too much, I was losing the rear. It was really very difficult. Fortunately, we got some information for the future, for low grip tracks, and in less than five days we will be back on the bike again in Mugello’.
Asked to detail the engine problems, the pilot stated: ‘I was trying to neutralize the engine after releasing the brakes, and at that moment the engine response was not very clear. We were trying out different electronic strategies because this weekend we had a lot of difficulties with low grip conditions. So, in the warm-up we tried to see slightly different strategies in the numbers, but it seems that it was not the best for the race’.
