“Difficult to see if I can race with pain” – Alex Rins

Alex Rins says his target is still to compete in the Andalucia MotoGP and score points on Sunday but admits he will need to make a decision on his fitness after tomorrow’s action in Jerez.

The Suzuki rider is one of three riders returning from injury this weekend – together with Cal Crutchlow and Marc Marquez, who will hit the track on Saturday – after fracturing and dislocating his shoulder in an accident during qualifying for the Spanish MotoGP.

Having said prior to the event he will only ride if he feels safe to do so, the Spaniard endured a humbling day rooted to the bottom of the timesheets, proving 3.1secs off the top time in FP1 and 2secs off in FP2.

Admitting to feeling a lot of pain after FP1, Rins nonetheless appears determined to carry on into Saturday but admits he remains uncertain for the race itself.

“Today was a good day but it was a hard day. It was a painful day. On the bike I was feeling a lot of pain and from before the start of today I was thinking, ‘I’ll feel pain but I can still ride well.’

“After the session I saw that this was impossible and I felt much more pain than I expected. We have to keep fighting and working and FP2 was much better than FP1. For FP2 I tried some analgesic to try and reduce the pain. There was less pain but not enough.

“I feel pain but I don’t put risk on the tendons. We’ll see after tomorrow because for sure I need to feel better on the bike. If I see a moment where I don’t have enough power I’ll stop because it’s too risky for me and also for the other riders.

“The target for me is to finish in the points during the race. Now, after FP2 it’s difficult to see if I can race with the pain but we’ll see after tomorrow.”