Rins hands over helmet in marshal tribute

When Alex Rins crossed the finish line at Le Mans, he didn't dwell on his worst MotoGP result of the season but instead pointed to the sky before stopping at a group of marshals and handing over his race helmet.

It was an admirable gesture by the Suzuki rider, in tribute to 58-year-old marshal Jean-Paul Plée, who passed away after collapsing at the track on Friday morning at the French Grand Prix.

"I gave my helmet to the marshals, to pass on to the family of [Jean-Paul Plée]," Rins said.

"Marshals always do a fantastic job, running through the gravel to help us. It's dangerous. Another rider could crash [into them].

"This is why I would like to give my helmet to his family."

What a fantastic gesture @Rins42 gave his helmet to the marshals that lost their colleague on Friday ahead of the #FrenchGP  pic.twitter.com/M0Wjv43yUx

— MotoGP™  (@MotoGP) May 19, 2019

Rins, winner in Austin, has struggled in qualifying throughout this season, but sunk to a new low with 19th in the Saturday showers.

Although the Spaniard was able to recover nine places in the race, he has slipped from 1 to 20 points behind title leader Marc Marquez.

"It was a difficult weekend, qualifying went badly with the strategy and everything," said Rins, now third in the world championship.

"I started today’s race feeling very hopeful but in the end I had to manage some struggles, especially in corner entry and I could only manage tenth place.

"Those six points are important, especially as it was easy to crash today - we saw many crashes in all three races. There are still a lot of rounds to go, I’m ready for Mugello.”