Alex Rins concludes: I need something different to Fabio

After his second MotoGP weekend as a factory Yamaha rider Alex Rins concluded that he needs a more personalised set-up for his M1.

The former Suzuki and LCR Honda race winner has kicked off his Yamaha career with 16th and 10th place finishes, respectively, in the Qatar and Portuguese GPs.

Portimao was thus Rins’ first world championship points on the M1.

But after crossing the line 30-seconds from race winner Jorge Martin and ten-seconds behind team-mate Fabio Quartararo, Rins admitted he was expecting much more.

“These two races - Qatar, Portimao - have not gone the way that I was expecting,” Rins said.

“We need to work a little bit more on our own. I mean, [until now] more or less we did small changes on the bike, but focusing on the set-up that Fabio is using.

“After this race, I realised that I need to do something different on the bike, because [in Portimao] I had similar problems as the race in Qatar.

“I was struggling a lot with the front after releasing the brakes and going on the throttle. I’m struggling to turn. I cannot do [lean] angle.”

The six-time MotoGP race winner added: “In the middle of the race, I tried to change my riding style on the bike. To see if I was able to load the front more. But it was not enough. So it looks like we need more weight on the front to make the bike turn.”

Rins had hoped to prioritise set-up work during Yamaha’s private post-race Portimao test, subsequently rained off.

“Maybe we need to focus on the setup more than the new parts, because I'm not quite happy,” he had said. “It's not the team's fault, it's not the bike fault. It's just our second race.

“We need to get used to the bike. We need to understand. But we have work to do.”

Round three of the season takes place at COTA, the scene of Rins’ shock LCR Honda victory a year ago.