When Alex Rins climbed from seventh to third on the opening lap of the Americas MotoGP, 🅺he looked in with a fiಞghting chance of back-to-back COTA wins.

But the Suzuki rider soon hit traction problems out of the s♉🤡low corners and was hustled back to sixth by the middle stages.

The Spaniard retaliated by passin💟g tꦰhe Ducatis of Jack Miller and Jorge Martin during the second half of the race, and fourth equalled his best result of the season after of the Silverstone podium, but it had been a struggle.

"It was a very very difficult race for me. I struggled a lot, because exiting from the corners we were losing a lot of time. I don't know if it was beca🦋use of the rear tractio𝐆n, the aerodynamic package, or what," Rins explained.

"I couldn't fight. I couldn't hold an overtake, at least during the first metres on the straight. Then on the fast corners, we were able to ride quite well, but we were losing a lot exiting from the sl🌟ow corners…

"I 𒊎was trying to survive, because of the traction issuꩲes and the bumps."

Rins was unsure if an alternative rear tyre choice may have been bette♌ﷺr.

“We chose the soft rear𒀰, like♏ everybody else, because it seemed to be the best option to enter the fight with the same weapons," he said.

"In the ꧂end it’s hard to t🌱ell whether another choice may have worked better, but I’m glad I was able to get fourth - it’s not so bad and I could bring home some nice points.”

With Rins' team-mate and reigning champion Joan Mir finish🍌ing the race in seventh, which became eighth after a penalty for contact with Miller, Suzuki now has just three races left to claim a race win this se🅘ason.

“It was good that both riders could finish, and not in bad positions, but we wanted more," sai🌺d Suzuki technical manager Ken Kawauchi. "We weren’t able to fight for the podium here, which was a pity, especially given our past performances at COTA.

"It’s clear that we need to continue working. We’ll keep our heads down and push for the remaining 🥂rou🐼nds.”

Suzuki, which won the riders' and teams' titles last season, is currently third in the 2021 riders' (Mir), teams' and constructo𓂃rs' standings.

Rins - who like Mir, won one race last year - is twelfth in the world c🍷hampionship but within 23 points of Aleix Espargaro (Aprilia) in eigh﷽th with a potential 75 points still to be decided.