Alex Rins leaves Portimao relatively happy. The Catalan rider puts an end to his first pre-season with Honda with the feeling of have made solid progress in their learning on the RC213V of the LCR Honda Teama more physical and demanding prototype than the Suzuki GSX-RR he has been riding for the past six seasons.
Number 42 closed the day on Sunday far from the best times recorded by the Ducatista army; Rins placed 15th, just behind the Repsol Honda Team duo, with a disadvantage of eight tenths compared to Pecco Bagnaia and only 16 thousandths in direct comparison with Marc Márquez, 14th in Portugal.
The Catalan summed up Sunday as “a good day” in which “We have taken a step forward compared to Sepang, I’m more or less trying to bring this bike closer to my riding style“commented the LCR Honda Team rider during his brief meeting with the press in Portimao.
Unlike the previous test in Malaysia, Alex Rins has prioritized his work on the RC213V and He did not want to waste so much time comparing his telemetry with that of the Repsol Honda team. The Spanish rider considers that his pace at this point in the preseason is good, even better than that of Joan Mir and Marc Márquez, although he still has a long way to go until he feels the Honda is ‘his bike’.
“In Sepang I was looking a lot at the data of Marc and Joan, but not today”, Alex commented on Sunday afternoon. “On Saturday, compared to them, I was quite fast, and also with a good pace. I haven’t looked at the data yet today, but I will. In race pace I’m a little faster than them, but you can always find something in their telemetry that they do differently from you. I’m quite happy with the simulation I did of the Sprint Race, I ended up closer to the leading drivers. But I’m still far away, four or five tenths”, He recalled a Rins who, like the rest of the Honda riders, has yet to close the gap with the best.
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Regarding the RC213V, Rins qualifies the Japanese prototype as a motorcycle “a little more physical and demanding than the Suzuki”although he admits that he expected worse: “Before I got here, I thought it would be a much more physical bike than it really is.”
Read also: Joan Mir: “The sensations with the Honda are not the best”
Slowly and with good lyrics, that seems to be the motto chosen by #42 to consolidate his adaptation to the Honda. His fastest lap is still nothing to write home about, but he consoles himself knowing that he is on the same lap times as the official Repsol Honda motorcycles, with different parts than the ones he is wearing: “Today I did attack the clock. Okay, I finished 15th, eight tenths behind the first, but compared to the other Hondas, they have a different bike than mine“, Rins adds.