Alex Rins crashed out of the MotoGP Thai Grand Prix last weekend, but was able to use the race to confirm ideas 🔥he had about the performance of his Yamaha YZR-M1.

In general, Rins faced the same issues as he and factory Yamaha teammate Fabio Quartararo had face🎃d in d🌄ry conditions during the 27-lap Grand Prix at the Buriram International Circuit.

Mostly, that meant tyre warm-up problems💮, and Rins took several laps to get down to his optimal pace.

“Ovౠerall, it was the same as the dry conditions,” Rins said.

“We had exa🥂ctly the same problems; it took a lot of time, a lot of laps to warm the rear tyre, I had zero grip in the first part of the r🔯ace.

“Then when the tyre became ready, after five or six laps, I was able to ride in mid-1:𓄧40s, low-1:40s, I did a 1:40.3.”

For reference, race winner Francesco Bagnaia’s best lap of the race was a 1:39.794ꦉ, and he spent most of the second half of the race in the mid-to-high-1:40s.

Rins had a similar rhythm💦, but when he caught the group ahead of him his pace dropped into the 1:41s.

“So, I had one group of Honda bikes in front, at thre𝔍e seconds, and I was able to catch them.

“Once I arr𝐆ived, it was quite frustrating, because I was there, nothing to do, just I was recovering on braking, but then they were able to have more traction than me — much more, much more grip — and more top speed.

“So❀, I’ve just been there, thinking where it was possible to overtake, where not, and at some point I saw🏅 that [Luca] Marini had a little bit more and Joan [Mir] was not so strong as Marini, so I had the chance to overtake him, I overtake Joan.

“But already I was a little bi🐲t on the limit with the front tyre, because, once I arrive in the group, I was trying to do different lines to try the overtake, to try different things, and I was already feeling the front💝 tyre [was] too soft, I was losing.2

In one wa🍨y, the rain was a frustration for Rins because it meant he couldn’t try in dry conditions a setup ch𝔍ange he’d made after Saturday.

“But, anyway, we did a big change from yesterday to today that I couldn’t test in dry conditions, I only test in the wet, so we will carry this setti🃏ng for Sepang to see if we are able to find something for the future,” he said.

On the other hand, the similarity in the𒊎 characteristics of the YZR-M1 in dry and wet conditions meant that the race reinforced Rins’ convictionꦕ about what the bike’s weak points are, and therefore where the bike needs to improve.

“It confirme🐻d that the probl💖ems were the same as in the dry,” Rins said.

“🐻In many occasions I rode with Honda, with Marini in Misano, and it was the same: they have better edg꧂e grip, better traction, and more top speed.”