Suzuki’s Alex Rins is upbeat despite his frustrating crash from second in the French Grand Prix, having fought back from a lowly qualifying position to stake a bid for victory.
The Spaniard quickly found himself in a groove despite the tricky wet conditions, carving his way through to fourth after only a handful of tours.
He then closed down the leading Ducati duo at a rate of around four-tenths-of-a-second per lap to set-up a thrilling victory tussle, highlighted by a brave move at Turn 7 in the latter stages where he managed to pass both Jack Miller and Andrea Dovizioso for second late on.
His pursuit of leader Danilo Petrucci would come to an end just a lap later though as he dropped his GSX-RR at Turn 2 with just half-a-dozen tours remaining, taking the chequered flag 16th after having to stop once more to remove a marshals strap that had become lodged on the rear of the Suzuki during his earlier skirmish.
The two-time MotoGP winner described his early get-off as “unfortunate”, adding that a higher grid position would avoid any extra “nervousness” in future events.
“The crash was very unfortunate, but I’m happy that I was able to get through the first part of the race having to start towards the back and then having to try and find the limits of the bike quite fast,” said Rins.
“I’m happy we could do this (recover from 16th on the grid), and despite the crash I was there (at the front) I recovered quite a few seconds to the Ducati’s, once I was there with Jack (Miller) we started to fight which was quite nice.
“The overtake I pulled on the straight (on run to Turn 7) was unbelievable, I was urging the bike on so it was great.
“Then I had the crash, but I’m looking forward to my home race at Aragon next.
“It will be important to try and do a good qualifying first of all in order to avoid the nervousness and any problems because for sure it was difficult today, as we saw with Valentino (Rossi’s) crash, he went down like nothing.”
Suzuki’s GSX-RR machine was expected to go well around the tight and twisty Le Mans circuit, though both examples struggled significantly due to the colder conditions throughout the weekend-alas Rins’ impressive race-day fight-back was the first show of speed from the bike all weekend.
After both Rins and title-contending team-mate Joan Mir could only manage 16th and 14th on the grid respectively, Mir continued to suffer for pace during the 26 lap Sunday encounter.
Despite managing to find a better feeling with the Suzuki in the second half of the race, he could only manage a mystifying 11th, thus losing two points to championship leader Fabio Quartararo despite the Frenchman also having a tough day.
Rins slipped to 12th in the points standings as a result of his fall after what has been a tough year so far, having bagged just a sole podium finish at the previous round in Barcelona after his start to the season was plagued with a shoulder injury sustained at Jerez.
