Rins critical of his “stupid mistakes” in MotoGP 2021
Suzuki’s Alex Rins has criticised his “stupid mistakes” so far in the 2021 MotoGP season having crashed four times in the last three races while in strong positions.
Rins crashed out of the battle for victory in Portugal last month while running second and fell early on in the following Spanish Grand Prix from sixth position.
In Sunday’s wet Le Mans race, Rins recovered from 15th on the grid to run in the podium places by the end of lap five and exited pitlane behind race leader Marc Marquez.
But he crashed immediately at the Dunlop chicane, throwing away another podium opportunity, before falling again later in the race.
Rins is at a loss for words on his current form, not least because he insists the improvements made with the GSX-RR in 2021 are allowing him to “do whatever I want” on it.
“It’s true that I’m crashing a lot this season,” Rins said on Sunday at Le Mans, having dropped 57 points adrift in the championship standings.
“I’m taking all the crashes that the last two years we don’t make.
“I don’t know how to answer because I’m feeling good. I’m working hard at home with all my staff. This sometimes happens, I don’t know.
“We improved the bike a lot. I need to say sorry to the team because this year is the year that I’m feeling stronger on the bike, I do whatever I want – except in qualifying.
Alex Rins, Team Suzuki MotoGP
Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images
“But I do whatever I want here in Le Mans. We struggled a lot and in the dry conditions we were so fast from the beginning.
“We were out of Q2 for nothing, we finished 11th by just putting one tyre in the beginning.
“We did a big improvement on the bike, just we are doing stupid mistakes.
“Today we did the impossible. We passed the first lap fourth, or fifth, I recovered 10 positions on the first lap.
“I entered the box and changed the bike so fast I recovered one position, then a stupid crash again.”
Rins admits it’s hard to stay focused right now in his current slump but has vowed to “reset” again for the Italian GP.
“It’s a bit tough in these moments to see the guys in the team not high,” he added.
“We are passing through a difficult moment with these three crashes in the last three races. It’s not easy, for me it’s hard too.
“But I will do a reset again and I will arrive with the same strength at Mugello. This is all we can do now.”
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