Rins cures Suzuki qualifying woes with Assen front row

Alex Rins believes he’s solved his qualifying problems on the Suzuki as he secures just his second front row start in MotoGP with third place at Assen.

The Suzuki rider has needed to pull off charges through the MotoGP pack in a number of races in 2019 due to poor qualifying performances but shook off his bad qualifying form at the Dutch round by progressing through Q1 to storm to third place in Q2 – having held provisional pole after the first runs in the final qualifying session.

With a change of mentality and a few key setup tweaks, Rins feels he has been able to extract the maximum from his Suzuki in qualifying trim since the last round in Barcelona – only to be denied by a crash in Q2 at Montmelo last time out.

“I think in Montmelo we also did a good lap time in practice and it was a shame because in qualifying there we crashed at Turn 10 but since Montmelo I am feeling great and feeling confident on the bike and when you ride happy and enjoying the bike everything goes easier,” Rins said.

“Today was an important day for us, FP3 we were trying some things on the bike and I think for this reason we lost a little bit of speed to go directly to Q2.

“But we have been through Q1 with a very good lap time. I started Q2 very focused with a clear mind and we knew that I could do a good lap time so finally third is good for tomorrow.

“The race will be hard for sure these two guys will push from the beginning so I need to be alert and to see how we can do and how many riders will be in the front group.”