Alex Rins will motivate himself this season in MotoGP by competing in the competition where he will appear as the best rider equipped with a Honda. A challenge when we know that this place has been occupied since 2013 by a certain Marc Marquez who nevertheless completed the two days of testing at Portimao closing the off-season between the two former Suzuki drivers. The trio is far from command of operations, but they could well brighten up the second part of the platoon with their fratricidal struggle. In any case, the 17-time Grand Prix winner having won two of the last three 2022 races takes it very seriously.
In the ranking of combined times after the two days of the Portimao test, alex rins was 15th, behind Mir et Marc Marquez, respectively 13th and 14th. However, with its Honda satellite, it was only a few hundredths of a second from the official Repsol duo. The Catalan pilot said he experienced “ a good last day " with a " step forward compared to Sepang ". On the meaning of his work he commented: “ I'm trying to bring this bike closer to my riding style. But overall I'm pretty happy ».
His approach in Portugal was quite different from his previous one in Malaysia: “ in Sepang, I looked at Marc and Joan's data a lot, but not in Portimao. On Saturday I was quite fast compared to them, and also with a good pace ". On this level, he likes to mention: “ in terms of race pace I think I'm better than Joan and Marc ". However… " But of course there's always something they do differently, which is why I'll look at their data ».
Alex Rins: “je pensais que la Honda serait une moto beaucoup plus physique qu’elle ne l’est réellement"
Like most of his colleagues, he did a rehearsal of what will be the big novelty of this year in Grand Prix, the Sprint race: “ I'm quite happy with the simulation I did of the Sprint race, I finished closer to the leading drivers. But I'm still far away, four or five tenths » he regrets. Then he finishes by comparing his new machine with his late one. Suzuki : " before coming here I thought the Honda would be a much more physical bike than it actually is ».
His boss in the box Lucio Cecchinello was also satisfied with his new recruit: “ Alex Rins loves the Honda. We were a little worried about this adaptation in reference to his old bike but he told us that his sensations were better each time ". The Italian adds on motogp.com: “ we had a new chassis to try as well as aerodynamic elements. Alex understands the Honda more and more and little by little we are reducing our gap with the top of the field. So we are quite positive and motivated for the start of the season ».
