Alex Rins had a frustrating day at Motegi. The Suzuki rider hastens his options to get on the podium with Suzuki, before the Hamamatsu brand leaves the championship. The Barcelona driver assured on Thursday, before the start of the Japanese Grand Prix , that he was capable of returning to the positions of honor in one of the last five events on the calendar.
In FP1 held on Friday in Japan he proved it, completing several laps in the lead. However, misfortune meant that, when he went out onto the track to make a time attack , the yellow flags waved.
“I am very disappointed”, lamented Rins at the end of the session. “We were very strong throughout FP1. We worked thinking about the race, because tomorrow it will surely rain and we wanted to get the job done. In the end, when we put on the last soft tire, I couldn’t improve my time, because in the two or three laps I did there were yellow flags.
The problem comes when looking at the weather forecast for Saturday, with a threat of rain more than certain. “We’ll have to try tomorrow,” commented #42. “It will be difficult, because with rain everything changes, but we will try.”
It was an intense training in his box, since he was also chosen to wear the new spoiler that Suzuki brought to Motegi. “Honestly, I feel more stable under braking,” explained Rins. “I can brake a little harder and enter the corners better. At least it doesn’t move as much. I’m impressed, because Suzuki isn’t one of the brands that does this kind of thing that fast.”
The future Honda rider commented on a funny anecdote regarding this evolution, since at first the brand did not want him to try it. “It was funny, because I found out yesterday at the end of the day that they wanted Tsuda to try it. I went to talk to them about letting me try it, but they didn’t want to. We agreed that they would let me try it if I was competitive in the first minutes [of FP1]”.
It seems that, indeed, the result is positive, and the Spanish driver was not hesitant when asked if he would use it in the race. “We have to do well in these two consecutive races that we have. We won’t be able to continue with it here, because there will be rain, but if the feedback from the engineers is good, we will use it [in Thailand].”
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