Alex Rins said he didn’t use the Michelin soft tires in a late lap attack during Friday practice as he preferred to focus on his own Suzuki program going into Spanish MotoGP.
The Americas MotoGP race winner was a notable absentee from the top 10 at the end of FP2 and finished 16th in the afternoon, while the Spanish rider finished 12th overall on the combined results thanks to his efforts in FP1.
The Suzuki driver confirmed that he has not yet touched his soft rear tire mapping at Jerez while using a soft front tire during the two training sessions, making him confident of finding the crucial lap time during a qualifying run during RP3 until break in the Top 10 one and thus an automatic Q2 spot.
The two Suzuki drivers have had problems with qualifying so far this season. Both Rins and Joan Mir showed a superior racing pace to climb through the field, but Rins remains unaffected by any qualifying issues.
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“We ended up in P12 in the combined times, not far from the second quarter,” said Rins. “Tomorrow we’re going to focus on the soft in the rear as everyone used one, two or three soft tires, but we didn’t use it, we only used medium and hard, so we have tires for one lap.
“We focused on trying the tires because we have a mapping on this track that contains a lot of tires and we have two types of hard tires in the front and in the rear. I’ve tried both. Lots of tires. We have focused on this area.
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“I think under the windy conditions this afternoon and hot but not super hot, it wasn’t good for me [on the hard tyres]. When I tried I drove slowly. If we don’t see high temperatures on the weekend, we won’t use it. “
Rins also shrugged off expectations that were higher for him after his maiden MotoGP win last time in Austin, saying that the goals and mentality on his Suzuki team remain unchanged.
“I think the expectations are the same for me and the team,” he said. “When we arrived in Jerez, we had the same ambition and everything is the same.
“People out there might be like ‘okay, now Alex wins in Austin, now he’s going to win in Jerez’, it’s difficult and we have to work hard.”