Qatar MotoGP: 'Angry' Rins goes down fighting
Alex Rins rolled up 💜his sleeves and took the fight to Danilo🧜 Petrucci in Sunday's season-opening Qatar MotoGP.
But it backfired when Rins, who had qualif💞ied a MotoGP best o𒅌f sixth, fell from his Suzuki on an unlucky lap 13 of 22.
"I was starting from sixth position - my best result. Then the feeling with the clutch was not so good on the start and we missed a bit on the first lap," explai𓃲ned Rins, who dropped back to ninth.
Alex Rins rolled up his sleeves and took the fight to Da♏nilo Petrucci in Sunday's season-opening🍰 Qatar MotoGP.
But it backfired when Rins, who had qualified a MotoGP best of sixth, fell from his Suzuki on an unlucky lap 13 of ꦇ22.
"I was start🥀ing from sixth position - my best result. Then the feeling with the clutch was not so good on the start and we missed a bit on the first lap," explained Rins, who dropped back to ninth.
The Spaniard was initially able to shadow race winner Andrea Dovizioso as he moved through a vast lead group, but lost touch with the 🎃Ducati rider when he jumped from sixth to fourth on lap 8.
"When I was with 🐽Dovi I was following him easy - not very easy, but easy. But when he started to overtake on the straight it was impossible for me. I wasn’t competitive on the brakes today."
And that would prove his downfall, just a൩🗹fter the halfway stage.
"Petrucci was really good on the brakes. I was trying to fight with hiꦚm for sixth position when I 𒀰lost the front.
"Finall💞y, if I had stayed in ninth or tenth I would have finished the race in that position. I think that we have potential for more.
"I’m angry. I want to learn more and I think we have more potential to be closer to the fr༺ont.
"Fighting with Petrucci, who is a really good braker. We crashed. No𒐪thing more. I didn’t do a big mistake, like in Valencia for example when I started in second gear.
"Today I was more calm and more consistent."
Although losing out on the brakes, Rins and the GSX-RR were gaining in other areꦕas.
"What I saw in the race was that we are really competitive in fast corners and exiting from slow corners. In general we 🌠have a really like stable bike. We have a really well balanceꩵd bike.
"Today we were miss♍ing a little bit in braking but 𓂃in the rest of the areas, it was perfect.
"For examꦿple on the straight I started from the last corner and I think I arrived [at turn one] 0.3 or 0.5 from Petrucci. To gain this is very difficult. Finally in the fast corners they were disturbing me a little bit. But anyway, we’ll keep working."
Tไeam-mate Andrea Iannone, who fell while fighting for a podium in Qatar last season, fiꦜnished ninth.
Peter has been in the paddock for 20 years⭕ and has seen Valentino Rossi come and go. He is at the forefront of the Suzuki exit story and Marc Marquez’s injury issues.
