Rins out of Germany MotoGP weekend due to wrist injury
Suzuki’s Alex Rins has withdrawn from the remainder of this weekend’s MotoGP German Grand Prix due to the wrist injury he sustained in a crash in Barcelona.
The three-time MotoGP race winner was wiped out by LCR Honda’s Takaaki Nakagami at the first corner of the Catalan GP and suffered a fracture to his left wrist.
The Spaniard was cleared to ride this weekend at the Sachsenring and ended Friday’s practices a solid 11th on the combined times.
However, he admitted he was suffering more than he expected with the pain in his wrist and said he would make a final decision on his continued participation on Saturday morning.
Sachsenring is made up of 13 corners, 10 of which are left-handers, with Rins set to face 300 left corners in Sunday’s 30-lap race.
Having finished FP3 on Saturday morning in 17th on the combined order and facing potentially an extra 15-minutes of running in qualifying, Rins has taken the decision to sit out the rest of the German GP and try to recover more for next weekend’s Dutch TT at Assen.
“I have decided, together with the team, to stop riding and not compete in the race this weekend,” Rins said in a team statement.
“Today the feeling with my hand and wrist is somewhat worse than yesterday, and I found that I was in a lot of pain when I tried to do a fast lap.
“I don’t feel I am capable of competing. For this reason, we prefer to focus on being more recovered and stronger for Holland.”
Alex Rins, Team Suzuki MotoGP
Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images
Rins’ team had already advised him not to compete at the Sachsenring this weekend before he took to the circuit on Friday.
His absence from this weekend’s race all but ends his hopes of fighting for the 2022 world championship, which were already battered by the controversial collision with Nakagami in Barcelona.
Rins came to Germany 69 points off championship leader Fabio Quartararo having failed to finish in the last three grands prix.
This comes at the worst possible point for Rins as he tries to secure his MotoGP future beyond 2022 following Suzuki’s shock decision to quit the series at the end of the year.
Rins was linked to KTM before the Austrian marque signed Jack Miller from Ducati for 2023, while the Spaniard has also been connected with an Aprilia ride at RNF Racing next year.
Following his Nakagami collision, Rins was left furious with race direction’s decision not to punish the Japanese rider and questioned the competency of the current MotoGP steward’s panel.
Joan Mir will be the sole Suzuki representative at the Sachsenring now, with the 2020 world champion going directly to Q2 after ending FP3 seventh overall.
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