MotoGP: Strong result for Rins as Iannone’s woes continue

Alex Rins has matched his best ever MotoGP result at this weekend’s British Grand Prix by getting back inside the top ten and returning to the form he last enjoyed in the first round of the season at Qatar before a series of injuries delayed the progress of the youngest rider on the grid.

But it was yet another disappointing weekend for his teammate Andrea Iannone, who crashed out of Sunday’s race while battling for the points – and wiped out fellow Italian Danilo Petrucci in the process.

It’s been a difficult start to 2017 for Rins, but the Spaniard was able to come away from Silverstone happy, confident that they’ve made another step forward with the GSX-RR machine at the weekend.

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“I’m happy for how the weekend went; we continue to make steps forward. In the race, I felt comfortable from the beginning. Compared to previous races, in this one I managed to defend my position from the very early laps, and then I was able to try to attack. I could sit in eighth or ninth place with confidence, and with a confident pace.

“But then at the end of the race the rear tyre dropped a lot and I could only hang on to finish in ninth. I’m satisfied by the work we are doing. We continue to improve, not huge improvements, but consistent. We have to keep on getting experience and to try to get better qualifying positions which would make the race easier.”

And, despite another disastrous weekend for Iannone, he was quick to try and put a positive spin on it.

“After warm-up, I had higher expectations for the race; I felt very confident with an improved setup that made me feel good about my GSX-RR. In the race, I could sense from the very beginning that the feeling was different, especially in the back. I didn´t have that confidence, as I had issues with the traction, losing time in acceleration. It’s a shame; we have to find out what happened this morning.

“Then I sustained a crash in the race. I am very sorry for Petrucci. We have already spoken and he understood where I was coming from. So, we will continue to work. I’m happy for Alex who had a good race, and a 15-second gap from the winner is a positive sign for all of us.”

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