Rins ‘a few kph faster, then…’

Alex Rins held up his hands, admitting a small mistake led to his dramatic departure from the German Grand Prix, and has focussed his attention on securing more race wins and second in the MotoGP championship in the season’s second half.

The 23-year old crashed out at the downhill turn eleven on lap 19 of 30 while holding second place in the face of pressure from Maverick Viñales and Cal Crutchlow behind.

The Spaniard said he entered the Ralf Waldmann Kurve “a few kph faster” than the previous laps, but insisted on seeking out the positives from this performance: for the second time in a week he was challenging for the leading positions.

“I was a few kph faster than the previous laps,” he said when asked why he crashed. “For this reason I lose the front. It’s not the best place to crash because you are going very fast. We are good. So this is important.

“Today we’ve been very strong. I think we did a good start, a good strategy. I overtook [Jack] Miller and Viñales very fast because I thought my rhythm was a little bit better than them. I was riding comfortably. I was three seconds behind Marc and one ahead of Viñales.

“We have to take the positive things that at Assen and here we were very strong. I was riding good in the practices, starting well in the front positions. Now a small break and then Brno.

“Marc was a little bit stronger than us. Sincerely he started well. He was in first position then opened the gap to Maverick and I was behind. I couldn’t try to go with him. But here he was a little stronger than us.

“In the second position, we were riding well there. After the crash everybody started to ride slower because the tyre went down. It’s a shame. Two zeroes. But anyway now first position in the championship is far away. But we can fight for the second one."

Was he taking too many risks? “No,” came the forthright response. “I think the risk was the same. Going first, second. We were riding on our pace. Just a small mistake.”

Does Sunday’s performance prove he can challenge Andrea Dovizioso and Danilo Petrucci for second in the championship?

“Absolutely,” he said. “Now there are coming tracks that I enjoy riding. I think we have a competitive bike so we can show our real potential.

“Now [Marquez] has a good gap of points compared to the second one. I think it will be difficult to beat him, in my case, or the case of Dovi or Petrux. For sure we will try to win races but he have a good gap of points.

“Sincerely I’m not afraid [of any tracks that are approaching]. Even when we were in Qatar or Mugello I was not afraid of that race. I knew we would suffer a little bit more but it was OK.

“The races we will suffer more, can be Austria as you said. But the races that are coming – Brno, Silverstone, Motorland [Aragon] and the three or four out of Europe – we can be competitive.”