Alex Rins: “Important to make a reset”

The French MotoGP proved to be a frustrating event for Alex Rins, who spent much of the opening half of the grand prix in last place, ‘stuck’ behind Luca Marini.

But even when he cleared the Repsol Honda rider, grip problems under braking returned to haunt the Monster Yamaha rider.

Rins didn’t overtake again and only took the final point, for 15th, due to retirements ahead, including team-mate Fabio Quartararo.

“It was really tough for me,” said Rins. “I struggled a lot from the beginning to overtake the riders in front of me. This was the main problem.

“At the start, the front wheelie was a little bit high, and I lost some positions. Then, lap by lap, I was stuck behind Marini. 

“I was trying to manage the amount of throttle to get good traction to exit close to him and overtake him on the straight and on brakes, but it was really impossible for me.

“At some point, I was able to pass him and when I was riding alone, it was with the problems that we had all weekend; problems to stop the bike on brakes and a lot of slide going into the corners.

“This weekend was a weekend to understand and to take information because I didn't feel that we did a step, day by day. 

"So now it's so important to make a reset, we will jump on the bike again for two days in Mugello for an important [private] test and let's see if we can improve.”

Quizzed on team-mate Quartararo’s performance, which saw the home hero crash out of sixth place, Rins said:

“Fabio did great this weekend, but we both still have the same problems… we have a lot of margin to improve.”

The Yamaha team-mates will be joined on track at Mugello this week by the Honda race riders plus test riders from Ducati and Aprilia.