Álex Rins completed his first day as a Monster Energy Yamaha rider in MotoGP on Tuesday. He finished in 19th position in the Valencia tests, while his teammate Fabio Quartararo set the 12th fastest time.
The Spanish rider spoke about his first impressions riding the new bike: ‘I felt very comfortable with the bike. We divided the day in two ways: this morning I only adjusted Fabio’s setup for the race and just did laps, laps, laps to understand the bike, to find the 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 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 it very… not slow, but not aggressive. It’s normal‘.
Questionado sobre si se confirman las perspectivas populares de que Yamaha es una moto que se adapta particularmente bien a su estilo de conducción, el #42 respondió: ‘Creo que en este momento la diferencia entre el motor V4 y el de cuatro cilindros en línea no es la mayor diferencia en la moto. En este momento, la mayor diferencia es la aerodinámica. Te hace girar mejor, honestamente, porque con mi experiencia en otras motos, o por ejemplo, la Yamaha hoy… esta mañana estuve conduciendo con la carrocería estándar y con las condiciones de viento tuve muchos caballitos y al entrar en las curvas la moto giraba bien. Pero solo me quejaba de los caballitos. Y luego probamos con una carrocería diferente y sentí menos caballitos y mejor rendimiento en curva. Por eso, creo que ahora la diferencia entre los motores desaparece‘.
