Suzuki’s Ecstar’s Alex Rins may have been the star of the show in Portugal but the Spanish Grand Prix was a different story.

Despite his first MotoGP of the year on home soil and in front of plentiful support, Rins struggled throughout the weekend at Jerez. Qualifying in 14th he failed to produced the electric start that caught the headlines last Sunday, an impressive turn 11 save, however, did.

“Turn 11 I lose completely the front,” Rins confirmed from the Andalusian paddock. “I don’t know how I save it but I was a going out in the gravel so fast.

“I suffered a lot with the front during all the race. I was with a lot of locking on the front, having a lot of problems but then after this way out on the gravel, I rejoined the race on the last position and I was riding okay - not the same as Pecco and Fabio, but I was riding similar to Joan for example, but the feeling was a disaster.

“I was super, super with tension. I couldn’t do a lot of corner speed. I was waiting a lot with the throttle to go to the fast corners, but we need to analyse why. It’s the first time that happens to us, so let’s analyse what happened.”

Last weekend the 26-year-old captured ten places in the opening lap after rescuing a back of the grid start to fourth at the flag. Flash forward seven days and he was at a standstill in comparison.

“In the start we had a problem that I was in the middle of Pol Espargaro and [Enea] Bastianini so I was rolling off the throttle and then on the second corner one rider comes direct to me and I brake in the curb going to the outside and we lose a lot of positions there,” Rins explained.

“Then lap by lap I was trying to overtake the riders but I couldn’t stop the bike in the hard brakes, like corner one or corner six so we were losing everything.”

Having arrived in Jerez as joint leader of the MotoGP Championship, Rins heads to France fourth - equal on points to Gresini’s Bastianini but missing the all-important race win - and 20 points adrift of Fabio Quartararo.

“We lose a little bit of points today but there are a lot of races remaining,” he clarified confidently. “Let’s try to work hard tomorrow on the test and let’s go to Le Mans.

“It’s normal that today we are a little bit disappointed for the race, but we need to recover because we are in a good performance. So let’s try to give back the feeling.