Alex Rins OUT of Australian MotoGP

Alex Rins has withdrawn from the remainder of this weekend’s Australian MotoGP race due to continued pain in his injured leg.

Rins’ withdrawal from the weekend came after he was the fastest Honda rider - in 12th place overall - in Friday practice at Phillip Island.

However, Rins’ Friday also involved a crash, and came just one week after his first race back - at last week’s Indonesian Grand Prix - after his Italian Sprint injury back in June.

A review of his condition was taken on the Saturday morning in Australia, and it was decided that he should withdraw from the weekend.

Rins will not be replaced this weekend. Previously, he has been replaced by Stefan Bradl, but with MotoGP’s reshuffled schedule to mean the Australian Grand Prix is taking place on Saturday, there was only one practice session before qualifying and then the main race.

MotoGP Thai Grand Prix

Rins’ participation in next weekend’s Thai Grand Prix is now also in doubt. Of course, part of Rins’ withdrawal from Phillip Island is due to the physical nature of the circuit, which is high speed and requires strong force through the legs to change direction. This is in relative contrast to the circuits in Indonesia, where Rins was able to finish the whole weekend one week ago, and Thailand, which are slower in average speed and place more emphasis on hard, straight line acceleration and deceleration. However, conditions in Thailand next weekend are likely to be much hotter than those in Australia this weekend.