Alex Rins will be second on the grid for tomorrow’s MotoGP race at Portimao, having secured his first front row start since Valencia last year.
Suzuki’s qualification topics have been a big topic of discussion for almost a year. This weekend, however, Rins was able to find speed again and again and challenge the top times in time attack situations.
“Today was a great day for us. Yesterday was already a good day, always at the top. I’m pretty happy because we know how difficult qualifying is in MotoGP, but especially with our bike, and we get it today so first row, “added Rins.
“Let’s see what we can do tomorrow. I think it will be a very close race with a lot of riders at the front, especially the Yamahas and Ducatis.”
Tire selection will be crucial to the race, as it normally is, but with track conditions and grip development in Portimao differing greatly from session to session, Rins believes the middle tire is best for him at the moment , but that the route “temperature” will play a key role.
Rins said: “Let’s see, with the temperature. At the moment I prefer the middle tire. We started the FP4 with the hardest compound in the rear.
On the subject of matching items
“At first I felt good, but then it was difficult to improve and I lost a lot of rear tire grip.
“So I switched to the middle tire and felt a lot better. If the temperature doesn’t change much tomorrow, we will probably use the middle tire.”