Alex Rins stayed in Qatar ahead of opening round ‘to be in race mode’

After pre-season tests in Sepang and Lusail, Alex Rins will make his official Yamaha MotoGP debut this weekend.

Rins missed out on the Qatar MotoGP round last season after suffering an injury-hit year with LCR Honda. 

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Despite making only seven appearances throughout the season, Rins was still able to win after taking Honda to victory at COTA.

Now at Yamaha alongside 2021 world champion Fabio Quartararo, Rins could be a dark horse to claim similar results.

Rins is still in a battle with Maverick Vinales and Jack Miller to become the first MotoGP rider to win with three different brands.

But to do so, Rins admits he still needs to adapt further to the M1 machine.

“This new chapter with Yamaha officially starts this weekend,” began Rins. “I've stayed on in Qatar after the test because the weather predictions were not so good for where I live, and I wanted to be able to train as much as possible and to be in race mode as early as possible.

“I am super motivated and in general quite curious to see what we can achieve this weekend.

“It's a relatively new bike and new team, and I didn't race in Qatar last year, which was resurfaced and rebuilt since 2022, so I know I will have to take a bit of time to adapt, but more importantly, I'm just excited to get started.”

Yamaha did not make the steps forward in testing that they would have hoped for.

Both Rins and Quartararo were pleased with the overall package, but it’s clear that the pair expected more as a significant gap remains to the likes of Ducati, KTM and Aprilia.

“After the short winter break, we reached the time to finally start racing again,” said Team Director Massimo Meregalli. “We are back in Qatar for GP1. Starting the season here again under the floodlights is nice.

“This, of course, means that we will have a 'different-from-the-usual' schedule again so we can race after sunset, which further adds to Lusail's unique atmosphere.

“We already had a little taster of what could be possible in this upcoming round during the Qatar Test, and we will commence FP1 based on what we have learned there.

“Even though we have a general feeling of what the performance level of our competition is like, the races will show how the cards have been dealt this season.

“Though the off-season was relatively short, we, as MotoGP enthusiasts, have all been impatient to start the 2024 rounds. We can't wait to be back in action!”