Fourth place Rins makes it count on Sunday again

Alex Rins says he wouldn’t have finished higher than fourth position had he started in a better grid spot as he once again put his Saturday struggles behind him with another strong Sunday showing for Suzuki

Coming into the weekend third in the overall standings, Rins started 13th after a tactical blunder saw him timed out of Q1, but it ultimately mattered little as he made swift progress to the front in an aggressive but well-judged opening few laps.

At one stage looking as though he had the measure of the two Ducatis of Andrea Dovizioso and Danilo Petrucci, plus the Repsol Honda of Marc Marquez, Rins moved to the front more than once but was repeatedly swallowed up on the home straight.

Indeed, while Rins stayed locked in the top four fight all the way to the finish, he didn’t quite have the momentum to do better than fourth, a determined attempt to pass for the podium on the final corner coming up just short.

Another example of Rins’ race day abilities having now turned a qualifying scoresheet of 10-16-7-9-19-13 into 4-5-1-2-10-4 results, he remains third overall. Even so, the Spaniard believes the result was his maximum regardless of his starting position.

“I don’t think I could have had a better result with a better grid position, I recovered a lot of places on the first lap, but I was losing a lot of time on the straight. We knew it would be a tricky part of the track for us, and it’s a bit of a pity.

“I gave 100 per cent and pushed really hard, I tried to pass Dovizioso on the last corner, but he had a bit more traction than me. Anyway, I’m happy with this 4th and it all helps with the championship!”