Alex Rins of Suzuki says his MotoGP Grand Prix of the Americas was all about “trying to survive” to the finish due to traction troubles and circuit bumps.
From seventh on the grid, the 2019 Circuit of the Americas winner sped to fourth at the first corner before scything into third later in the first lap.
But his charge for the podium didn’t last long as he quickly slid back, eventually finishing 11.098 seconds behind race winner Marc Marquez.
Rins claims he had traction issues during the race, which caused him to “couldn’t fight,” and he’s baffled as to why he had this issue.
“I think today was a very, very difficult race for me,” Rins said after Sunday’s race.
“I struggled a lot because exiting from the corners, we were losing a lot of time.
“I don’t know if it was for the rear traction, the aerodynamic package or what, but I couldn’t fight.
“I couldn’t hold the overtakes, at least the first metres in the straight.
“Then on the fast corners we were able to ride quite well, but we were losing a lot exiting from the slow corners.
“We were so close to racing with the hard front and medium rear, in the end we saw that mostly all the riders were using the soft rear.
“So, to go with the same guns, we used the soft rear. [The bike] was not so bad [over the bumps].
“I was feeling a lot the bumps, but I was trying to survive. Was bumps for everybody. Because of the issues on traction and for the bumps [I was trying to survive].”
Joan Mir, who experienced similar traction issues in Sunday’s race, finished seventh, but was later demoted to eighth after colliding with Ducati’s Jack Miller on the final lap.
It was a financial penalty. Mir later stated that he “didn’t respect” Miller’s “weird” lines in the corners, and that he was forced into the collision.
Regardless, Mir’s title fight was officially over, with the Suzuki rider now 78 points behind championship leader Fabio Quartararo and with 75 points up for grabs in 2021.
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