Alex Rins gives worrying assessment of “super heavy” Yamaha at Italian MotoGP

Alex Rins has given a worrying assessment of his chances ahead of Sunday’s Italian MotoGP at Mugello.

The six-time MotoGP race winner, who is currently fighting to remain on the grid next season, advanced directly to today’s Q2 session after a surprising top ten finish in Friday’s afternoon practice. 

But following a tough qualifying and sprint race, Rins is now fearing the worst come Sunday’s grand prix. Rins says the M1 “super heavy”, making it hard to handle around the twisty Mugello circuit. 

Speaking after the sprint race, Rins said this about where the M1 is struggling the most: “It is rear grip, front grip, turning, the bike is super heavy. I don’t know how I’m going to manage the race tomorrow. 

“My arms are destroyed from today already. It’s going to be really hard.”

Despite making it through to Q2 directly, Rins was left frustrated after qualifying last in the session, meaning 12th on the grid.

Rins was then unable to make any progress in the sprint after being stuck behind KTM’s Brad Binder throughout.

Rins added: “Today we improved our time from yesterday, but after the first stint, I went into the box and [saw that I did] 1m45.0s on the TV. But I saw that I was in last position, [and] I was like ‘woah!’ 

“It was so hard for me to manage. It was hard because I was pushing like hell. I was pushing at my maximum like always. 

“I’m feeling good at this track and I can make small differences against my colleagues. But when you give everything and you see yourself in last position, it’s really frustrating. 

“Then in the sprint race it was quite difficult to manage. I got stuck behind Binder in the first [few] laps and I couldn’t overtake him. I think my pace was a little bit better than his.”