Repsol rider passes Salom on penultimate corner and takes win. Marquez places fifth in another excellent race.
Alex Rins took his second win of the season today and kept his chances of fighting for the title alive. The young protegé of Emilio Alzamora overcame an adverse situation on the last three laps, in which Luis Salom took command of the race and pulled four tenths ahead. His teammate Alex Marquez, in the latest showing of his great ability to adapt to unfamiliar circuits, finished fifth, just over 5 seconds back on Rins after riding most of the race fourth.
At the start of the race, Rins took the lead and started to pull away hard. Viñales and Salom closely followed him as they broke free, with Miller, Marquez and Folger a little further back. Folger dropped off, whilst Marquez lost contact with the top three later on.
Rins remained ahead of the pack throughout the race, except at the end when, with three laps remaining, Salom took the lead and opened up a small gap over him and Viñales. During the last lap, with everything seemingly settled, Rins decided not to give up. Thanks to a masterful braking move on the penultimate corner on the descent, he passed Salom. Rins crossed the finish line victorious, followed by Salom and Viñales. Behind them Marquez fought for fourth position with Vazquez and Oliveira, with the latter relegating him to fifth on the penultimate lap.
Following the German GP, Rins maintains third in the overall standings, behind Salom and Viñales. He is 30 points off Salom. Marquez is fifth overall.
Alex Rins >> Audio
1st – 39:34.735
“I’m very happy. At the beginning of the race I tried to pull away a bit, to see if it could narrow down the lead group, but past the halfway point the difference was still less than half a second, so I have decided to let Viñales or Salom pass in order to study them for a bit. Viñales could not go as fast and I again got ahead, until on the final laps Luis attacked me and pushed hard. That motivated me to keep going and never give up in order to achieve victory. On the penultimate corner I could pass him and take the win. The truth is that I didn’t think about the move much and just went for it, avoiding my mistakes at previous races.”
Alex Maquez >> Audio
5th at 5.201 sec.
“The truth is that we knew that today we would have to get a very good start, if we were to try to sneak into the lead group. I did so and moved up several positions in the run to the first corner, but then Folger and Miller held me up and those ahead could break away. When Maverick [Viñales] took the lead they recovered ground a bit, but with Rins in front the distance was stretched. Finally, in the fight with Oliveira, I made a small mistake on the last lap and I could not overtake him. I have to be happy, because I gave 100% every lap. I started tenth and finished fifth at a new track for me, five seconds off the win, so I’m content going into the break.”
