'Two letters were different' - 'stressful' qualifying for Alex Rins

By the time the mistake was corrected, Rins only had enough time for one flying lap on the correct tyres and will start the British MotoGP from eleventh on the grid.

“A little bit disappointed, because we were doing a good job in FP1, FP2, FP3, FP4 . But it was a little bit of a disaster in qualifying,” Rins said.

“The Michelin guys and also my team made a small mistake and I did the first run with the hardest compound on the front.

“I didn't understand why it was so difficult to stop the bike. But then when we [pitted], myself and the team saw that I was using the hard.

“They changed it, which took a lot of time and then I only was able to do one more lap.

“With all this stressful time, I still improved my lap time and did my personal best in this track. So it's OK.”

Quizzed on how such a mistake had happened with the tyres, Rins explained:

“The number of the tyre was exactly the same, just two letters were different between the soft and the hard compound.

“The team said to Michelin [via] an app on the phone to mount the softest compound. Michelin did a mistake and put the hardest compound, but then the team didn’t check it later.

“I noticed [something] when I was on the bike, but I say ‘OK maybe there is a little bit of wind’ or something like this. But corner 12 is quite critical, and the hardest compound is easy to lose…”

Despite the setback, the 2019 Silverstone winner is remaining upbeat.

“Right now in MotoGP, if you start on the first or maximum second row, you have half the race done. But it is what it is," he said.

“Let's start again on the fourth row, we did it in the past, so we need to think positive. I mean we have a really really strong pace with the medium and with the hard compound on the rear, we still need to decide which is the best for tomorrow.

“Zarco did a good FP4, with the hardest compound,” Rins added, when asked about who is looking strongest for the race.

“Fabio also with a lot of laps on the medium one, he was riding quite fast. Martin did a good last two laps with the used medium, I think. So more-or-less a lot of people have a good pace.

“Let’s see what happens in the first laps.”

Team-mate Joan Mir will start just behind Rins, in twelfth.