Honda “have better edge grip, better traction, more top speed” than Yamaha - Alex Rins
“Overall, it was the same as the dry conditions. We had exactly the same problems…”
Alex Rins crashed out of the MotoGP Thai Grand Prix last weekend, but was able to use the race to confirm ideas he had about the performance of his Yamaha YZR-M1.
In general, Rins faced the same issues as he and factory Yamaha teammate Fabio Quartararo had faced in dry conditions during the 27-lap Grand Prix at the Buriram International Circuit.
Mostly, that meant tyre warm-up problems, and Rins took several laps to get down to his optimal pace.
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“Overall, it was the same as the dry conditions,” Rins said.
“We had exactly the same problems; it took a lot of time, a lot of laps to warm the rear tyre, I had zero grip in the first part of the race.
“Then when the tyre became ready, after five or six laps, I was able to ride in mid-1:40s, low-1:40s, I did a 1:40.3.”
For reference, race winner Francesco Bagnaia’s best lap of the race was a 1:39.794, and he spent most of the second half of the race in the mid-to-high-1:40s.
Rins had a similar rhythm, but when he caught the group ahead of him his pace dropped into the 1:41s.
“So, I had one group of Honda bikes in front, at three seconds, and I was able to catch them.
“Once I arrived, it was quite frustrating, because I was there, nothing to do, just I was recovering on braking, but then they were able to have more traction than me — much more, much more grip — and more top speed.
“So, I’ve just been there, thinking where it was possible to overtake, where not, and at some point I saw that [Luca] Marini had a little bit more and Joan [Mir] was not so strong as Marini, so I had the chance to overtake him, I overtake Joan.
“But already I was a little bit on the limit with the front tyre, because, once I arrive in the group, I was trying to do different lines to try the overtake, to try different things, and I was already feeling the front tyre [was] too soft, I was losing.2
In one way, the rain was a frustration for Rins because it meant he couldn’t try in dry conditions a setup change he’d made after Saturday.
“But, anyway, we did a big change from yesterday to today that I couldn’t test in dry conditions, I only test in the wet, so we will carry this setting for Sepang to see if we are able to find something for the future,” he said.
On the other hand, the similarity in the characteristics of the YZR-M1 in dry and wet conditions meant that the race reinforced Rins’ conviction about what the bike’s weak points are, and therefore where the bike needs to improve.
“It confirmed that the problems were the same as in the dry,” Rins said.
“In many occasions I rode with Honda, with Marini in Misano, and it was the same: they have better edge grip, better traction, and more top speed.”
