MotoGP Valencia-2 Álex Rins (Suzuki/9): “This weekend is going to be quite a challenge”

The Suzuki rider started this second Grand Prix in Valencia in a positive way and hopes to continue his momentum tomorrow in qualifying, even if he knows it will be very close.

Alex Rins is having an end to the season that goes against the way he started it. With an injury and several errors, he was very far behind in the championship and completely ahead of his teammate, Joan Mir, who therefore became the number one rider for the Suzuki team.

If the latter has displayed great consistency and has a first possibility of being titled this weekend, Rins has made a real comeback by stringing together four podiums including a victory, not counting his Le Mans race which ended with a blank result but which could have resulted in another top 3.

Having moved up to second place in the championship, he is today Mir's main opponent for the title and still hopes to be able to win it, even if he knows that with 37 points behind it will be complicated. “Obviously I would like it to be me who brings the title to Suzuki”, he confided. “I've been with them for four years but things have gotten a bit complicated, but if we can't finish first we'll try to be second or third. »

After his second place last week in Valencia, Rins hopes to repeat his performance this weekend. With the good weather being there, like last Sunday, everything seems to be going well and the Suzuki rider even had some good free practice sessions. With an 11th place in FP1 and an eighth place in FP2, just three tenths off the best time, he is definitely present.

" It was a good day ", did he declare. “I'm actually close to the best times even though I finished ninth in the combined times. Today I focused on trying out some things that we weren't able to work on last week due to the rain. In the end my pace was good and I felt good but I will try to progress tomorrow with the objective of achieving a good qualification. This weekend is going to be quite a challenge because everyone is close. We must therefore stay focused and try to find optimal settings. »

For the moment automatically qualified for Q2, he will have to confirm in the top 10 tomorrow to then hope to finish among the first during qualifying.