Rins and Marquez repeat podium double from Silverstone at Misano. Great race for the two Repsol riders, cutting gap to Miller in the overall standings.
Alex Rins and Alex Marquez took the victory and runner-up spot, respectively, in San Marino for the second consecutive Grand Prix, reducing the gap to Moto3 series leader, Jack Miller, in the process. After another stellar display at Misano, Marquez trails Miller by 9 points and Rins is 20 off the top with five races remaining and 125 points at stake.
The race started with Miller pushing hard at the front and both Repsol riders attentive to his attempts at escaping. Although Marquez got off the line the best and was up into third, Rins quickly took the lead of the second group from fourth and went after Miller. As he broke away, he brought with him his teammate and Miguel Oliveira, who later crashed out of the race.
After overtaking Miller, Rins established a gap of just over a second, but Marquez –on his own in second– gradually reeled in his teammate and caught him with 8 laps to go. Patient behind Rins, Marquez got past him with 2 laps remaining. Rins returned the favour on the final lap to win by 0.042s.
With this latest victory and second place for Rins and Marquez, the Spanish duo head to their home round in a fortnight’s time: The Aragon GP at MotorLand.
Alex Rins >> Audio
1st – 39:50.694
“It was a very nice race, although it dragged on a bit for me because, from the beginning, I spent a long time riding by myself at the front. Initially I could open a small gap over my teammate Alex [Marquez], but on the last three laps he managed to catch me. Eventually I was able to think about the right strategy, just how it happened to me last year, and in the end it went well. I was able to take the win, so I’m very happy”.
Alex Marquez >> Audio
2nd, at 0.042 sec.
“It was a pretty tough weekend for us, with four crashes –one of which was a heavy one in the warmup. So in the end second place is very important for us. We tried our best and managed to cut the gap to the series leader for the third race in succession, so we should be happy and continue in this way. Now comes a home race and hopefully the circuit is full, so that the fans can push us at every turn. At Motorland, where we have done three tests, we will try to be competitive from day one”.
