Ecstar Suzuki’s Alex Rins is ready to snatch the opportunity to give 100 per cent from the start of the season after an injury plagued debut year in MotoGP.

Returning to the opening round stronger and more experienced, the Spanish rider has high hopes for a better season in 2018, with his first injury of last year coming just after the first race in Qatar, in a motocross accident.

“Finally I feel strong because, I have more experience on this bike, but also the bike changed a lot - we changed the engine, we changed the aerodynamic parts, the set up and also the mapping area. I’m happy because we worked good but the Japanese guys have worked hardest this winter,” he said, speaking at the track.

The Spaniard went on to elaborate on how hard the Suzuki team have been working over the winter and what changes the bike has undergone over that period of time.

“For sure, in Thailand we tried new parts and we confirmed with IRTA we will use the big aerodynamic package, I think we took a really big step in this area.

“I think the strong parts we have is in the corner speed, the bike is really agile, I think this is important for all tracks. The weak part is we lose a little in the top speed area.

The target is trying to learn a lot trying to battle for the seven first positions… for the five first positions, for sure it will be very difficult but we will try.”

Rins was more unsure than most when asked what tyres he would be planning to run under the spotlights, with the weather conditions at the Qatar test being far from perfect. With most riders leaning towards the soft option, the Suzuki man had more doubts:

“We don’t know because all the days the wind was really strong and there was a little bit of sand on the track but we have more or less the setup here. At the moment I think we have everything we need.”