Alex Rins: Wrist decision after FP3, fairing choice ‘with my eyes closed’

Riding less than two weeks after being taken down in Takaaki Nakagami’s accident in Catalunya, Rins suffered a further scare when he was one of several riders to fall at turn one of this morning’s FP1.

“The crash was so strange, but I was coming from two slow laps due to yellow flags in corner one, so maybe right on the edge of the tyre was not hot enough,” Rins said. “I lost the front and immediately covered my hand to avoid any contact with the floor.”

Rins sat out the rest of the session, leaving him in 19th place after 13 laps. He then completed 19 more laps in the afternoon, briefly appearing as high as third, before being pushed down to eleventh.

Directly behind team-mate Joan Mir and only 0.573s from Francesco Bagnaia’s new lap record, it is endurance rather than speed that is putting Rins’ German Grand Prix in jeopardy.

“It's painful, more painful than I was expecting sincerely,” Rins said of the wrist. “In FP1 I suffered a little bit, but I was thinking, maybe in FP2 the wrist is a little bit more warm and I can do better. But I suffered more in FP2 than FP1.

“Let's see how the night goes and how I feel in FP3. Together with Livio [Suppo], with the Suzuki guys, we will decide tomorrow after FP3 if we will continue or not because it's a little bit hard for me, I think, to complete the full race right now.”

Alex Rins must pick new Suzuki fairing ‘with my eyes closed’

The Barcelona accident doesn’t just had physical consequences for Rins, but technical ones.

The injury forced him to miss the post-race test and therefore the chance to try the two different specifications of Suzuki fairing upgrade.

With no further testing until the autumn, Rins must now pick which fairing he wants to use as his one and only in-season aero update without actually having tried either of them on track.

“This will be hard for us because Joan was able to test both fairings, the two new specs, in Montmelo. And from these two new specs, he decided which one was better for him,” Rins explained.

“In my case, I need to go a little bit with my eyes closed. Because we can only approve one option. Luckily, I can choose between the one that Joan has and the other one, we don't need to put the same fairing for both riders. I don't know [which one] for sure. I'm thinking about it.”

“Yeah, it can be a gamble,” he admitted. “Maybe what I was thinking is that we cannot risk a lot. I mean, the first fairing option is similar to the one that we are using now. And the second option is more, let's say radical, with a centre cowling. That is the one that Joan is using.

“Maybe I need to choose the first option, because I don't want to risk so much and we can’t test [the fairing first].”

Joan Mir: Best Friday in a long time, I’m happy

Team-mate Mir may only have been a fraction quicker on the timesheets but the former world champion felt it was one of his best Friday’s in a long time.

“I'm happy about today because we could recheck what we tried at the Barcelona test and it looks like my feeling with the bike improved. I was able to be more or less strong with every tyre,” he said.

“Especially with the medium rear in FP2, I was able to be fast, then with the hard, I was constant but I was not able to have the lap, you know, the grip. So we have to analyse everything but I’m happy because for the first time on Friday in a long time, we are more or less there.

“Not about the fast lap time, but about the pace and everything we are not far. So I'm optimistic about this GP and let's continue working on this line.”

The new fairing he had chosen after the Barcelona test was also performing well at the tight and twisty Sachsenring.

“I like it. We knew that for our bike, the aerodynamic package is something that we had margin to improve, and this is a step,” he said. “Especially here where you have a lot of wheelie in some corners and I want to keep using it.

“It creates more downforce on the front. More weight on the front. So for the wheelie it's better and in the fast corners maybe it can give you a bit more support on the front and maybe better turning.”