Sepang.- Although Alex Rins’ victory at Phillip Island can be described as a surprise, given the race that the Suzuki rider starred in last Sunday and his usual brilliance in driving when he has everything in place, it leads one to think that starting from the first two rows of the grid of the Malaysian Grand Prix, discarding him to fight, again, for the first positions would be a serious mistake, even though the Ducati, especially Jorge Martín and Enea Bastianini, showed that they are capable of to break any record.
Rins finished eighth in FP3 on Saturday morning, which opened the doors to Q2, the one-lap classification that is, without a doubt, the great Achilles heel of the Suzuki. However, this time the Barcelonan managed to do a fast lap that lifted him to fifth position.
“I’m quite happy with today’s performance, because I was fast in FP3, which allowed me to go directly to Q2,” explained Rins at the end of the day.
“Then, in FP4, I was also able to have a good pace on the used tyres. My position on the grid is good, and my pace is not bad, although we are a bit far from pole time,” referring to the new record set by Martin.
“Anyway, I will try to manage the race carefully, conserving the tires and trying to understand when and where to overtake. I will give my best and we will see what happens,” he said.
Coming from winning in Australia, it must be understood that Rins will seek to continue in this state of grace, although ahead of him, in addition to Martín and Bastianini, he will have two other tough nuts to crack, such as Marc Márquez and Marco Bezzecchi.
“I think the goal could be the podium, in FP4 we showed a very good pace with the tires worn until the end of the race, so if we start well and are able to manage, and especially if we don’t lose too much time with the Ducati from the front, I think it is feasible to achieve it”, settled the Suzuki rider.
