Rins surprised by key tyre combination at Sachsenring

Alex Rins says he felt instantly on the pace on Friday practice at the German MotoGP while he was shocked by the tyre combination which guided him to second place on the FP2 timesheet for Suzuki.

After shaking off the disappointment of crashing out of the lead at Assen last weekend, Rins started brightly at Sachsenring as he looks to make up lost ground on MotoGP championship leader Marc Marquez.

Despite trailing Marquez at the end of FP2, with the Repsol Honda rider looking to secure a 10th consecutive pole position and race win in his career at the German track, Rins set his fastest lap time of 1m 21.046s on a new hard rear tyre combined with a new medium front tyre while the majority of his rivals found stronger single-lap speed using fresh soft tyres.

“When I tried the different tyre configurations I found the best feeling with the hard one, and that surprised me a bit,” Rins said. “In FP2, I kept a strong rhythm and stayed near the top. I’ll give my all tomorrow to get a good grid spot, ideally on the front row.

“I’m happy with my performance today, the bike felt really good from FP1 onwards.”

Rins ended FP2 0.341s behind Marquez who used a fresh medium-soft Michelin tyre combination to set his fastest lap time.

A number of riders saw their late soft tyre runs wrecked at the end of FP2 after being blocked by other riders at the narrow and tight Sachsenring including Fabio Quartararo who ended the session directly behind Rins in third place just 0.019s off the Spaniard.