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Suzuki has showed “incredible” long-run pace during 2019 MotoGP pre-season testing so far, reckons rider Alex Rins.
Rins was runner-up on both days of the test so far, but said there should be more attention on the bike’s speed on used tyres than the headline result.
“I’m very happy, because from the [Valencia 2018] race bike to now, we improve,” Rins said.
“For sure we improve – we don’t improve one second, but we improve some tenths, that it’s very important in the end.
“The bike gives me confidence to enter [the corner] faster and do a good corner speed, also every lap I make I’m trying new things.
“The rhythm with 20-25 laps on the tyre was incredible.”
Rins claimed the new specification of the GSX-RR has improved acceleration. He acknowledged that braking and top speed remain a weakness, but thinks Suzuki has made gains in the latter aspect.
This has come through “a little bit more power from the engine”, but also a new fairing Rins trialled on the second day that gave him better support on the front tyre.
But having finished the last seven races of 2018 in the top six, Rins said there has been no need to make drastic changes in the off-season.
“We don’t need to try, I don’t know, [putting] the rear wheel on the front, the front on the rear. Just small adjustments, that will give us more information, more consistency.”
While Rins starred through the first two days of testing, his rookie team-mate Joan Mir was outside of the top 20 on both occasions.
But despite feeling “tired” at the end of Thursday the Moto2 graduate insisted he was satisfied with the way the test has unfolded so far.
“We were working a lot on the new bike – the good things, the bad things, trying a lot of things,” Mir said.
“I’m quite happy about today, because we have the way that we have to take and this is really the most important thing.
“For tomorrow I hope to continue in this line, hopefully to make a time attack, to see what is going on.”