Alex Rins “devastated, I don't know what to say”
“I'm devastated, doing all the laps at 190 heart rate, giving my maximum for this, it was so difficult.”
Alex Rins may have avoided team-mate Fabio Quartararo’s end-of-race fuel problems, but he was left almost speechless after finishing Yamaha’s home Japanese MotoGP out of the points in 16th.
Rins was a massive 40.1s from race winner Francesco Bagnaia, crossing the line ahead of only Yamaha wild-card Remy Gardner.
All three M1 riders struggled for rear grip throughout the weekend.
“Really tough race. I don't know what to say. I'm devastated, doing all the laps at 190 heart rate, giving my maximum for this, it was so difficult,” Rins said.
“The first part of the race was not bad. We started today with the setup from Austria to see if on the braking side we were able to improve. If we were able to have more rear contact.
“And more or less it was a little bit better. I was able to feel a bit better the bike. But then as soon as the tyre dropped, it was almost impossible to control the spin.
“Even on the straight, exiting from corner 9, corner 10, I was spinning with the bike [upright]. So the tyre was a little bit flat on the centre.
“I don't know what to say. We need to find something because for sure it's not the way. I'm not happy with the work that we are doing.”
Quartararo lost eleventh place at the end of Sunday’s race, finishing over 30-seconds behind race winner Francesco Bagnaia.
After signs of progress at Misano, where Quartararo was on course for fifth (and less than 20-seconds from victory) until running out of fuel, Rins said that Motegi showed the ‘hard reality’ of Yamaha’s situation.
“For me, Misano for Fabio is like Austin for me,” Rins said. “He was super fast there… also we did a test, race, test, another race.
“So for me the result from Misano was not real.
“The reality right now is - putting [aside] the Ducatis, Aprilias and KTMs - Nakagami [soft rear] was much faster than Fabio and Zarco in the last laps.
“And when Marini overtook me, I was not able to follow him.
“So this is the reality. The hard reality.”
Rins is now 19th in the world championship, tied on 20 points with Repsol Honda’s Joan Mir.
