Rins prefers ‘Medium tyre’ for the race, depends on track temperature

Alex Rins will line-up second on the grid for tomorrow’s MotoGP race at Portimao after securing his first front row start since Valencia last year. 

Suzuki’s qualifying issues have been a big topic of discussion for the better part of a year now, however this weekend, Rins has consistently been able to find pace and challenge the top times in time attack situations. 

"Today was a great day for us. Already yesterday was a good day, always on the top. I’m quite happy because we know how difficult the qualifying is in MotoGP, but especially with our bike, and we get it today with this first row," added Rins. 

"Let’s see what we can do tomorrow. I think it will be a very tight race with a lot of riders in the front, especially with the Yamahas and Ducatis." 

Tyre choices will be critical for the race as is usually the case, but with the track conditions and grip evolution being quite different from session to session in Portimao, Rins believes the medium tyre is best suited for him at the moment, but that the track ‘temperature’ will play a key role. 

Rins said: "Let’s see with the temperature. At the moment I prefer the medium tyre. We started FP4 with the hardest compound in the rear. 

"In the beginning I was feeling good, but then it was difficult to improve and I was losing a lot of grip on the rear tyre. 

"So I changed to the medium one and I felt much better. If the temperature does not change much tomorrow, I think we will race with the medium tyre."