MotoGP, Rins: "I was hit by a stone on the straight at 300 km/h. I was knocked out."

The Qatar Grand Prix was a race of survival for Alex Rins, while his teammate, Fabio Quartararo, had to settle with ending the race in a disappointing 8th place, which became a 7th due to the 16-second penalty that relegated Maverick Viñales to 14th. The Spanish rider ended up stuck between the KTMs of Enea Bastianini's and Brad Binder's KTM and wasn't able to get past a 12th place, not only because of the M1's shortcomings, but also because of a mishap he experienced after the first third of the race.

"On the seventh lap, I was hit by a stone at 300 km/h on the straight and it knocked me out. I thought about going back to the pits, because I was in a lot of pain. My whole arm went numb, and it was hard to keep calm. I was in pain the whole race," Rins said at the end of the weekend, as reported by colleagues at the Spanish news outlet Motosan.

A small incident that made the 29-year-old's race even more complicated, with no weapons to fight with his rivals.

"Besides that, it's complicated to do more. We give it our all. On this occasion, for example, I crossed Ogura in front of me. His pace was slower than mine, but I couldn't overtake him," he admitted. "It's difficult for (Yamaha) to ask more of us. They can't ask more, because I, as a rider, demand more of myself. In the end, I'm still a racehorse. I'm here because I want to win and I want to improve. I demand more, but you can't take from where there's nothing. We have to wait for the rider in front to make a mistake and open up a little gap."

So much frustration shines through Alex's words, as he still struggles with the M1's long-standing grip problems.

"Before braking, I was passed on both the right and left. The fact that one passed me on the inside and one on the outside doesn't destabilize me. What destabilizes me is having a rider in front and not being able to pass him. That makes you crazy on the bike," he explained. " What we have is a grip problem. Apart from the engine, we come out of corners slow. The others, having more grip than us, accelerate and are able to make tighter trajectories. To give an example, coming out of turn four in Jerez, we'll definitely go wide. In fact, here, coming out of turn five, between turns five and six, where there's a small straight section, we're almost going on the green. You need traction in corners. You can't make up for the lack of traction, so you go wider."