Alex Rins just misses out on victory and places third. Teammate Alex Marquez suffers a crash after contact with rival on final lap.
The Repsol Moto3 riders experienced mixed fortunes at Mugello on raceday, where a long straight usually results in a group contest. Today’s GP was no exception, as the race began with up to 13 riders in the lead group early on, before the pack was reduced to 10 after a series of crashes and mechanical issues. The fight for the win went down to the final lap; Rins took third and another 16 points for his tally, whilst Marquez suffered disappointment when Miller and Bastianini’s collision took him out.
Rins quickly took the lead off the start line, with Marquez sixth. Alongside them, the extensive group rapidly managed to break away from the rest of the field. Amongst the riders at the front were World Championship leader Jack Miller, home rider Romano Fenati, Kornfeil, Masbou, McPhee, Bastianini and Viñales.
As the laps went by, constant overtaking moves changed up the order. By the final lap, these passes became even more daring. Rins occupied a spot at the front and avoided the problems present at the back of the pack, but Marquez was further behind and was unable to avoid Miller and Bastianini’s incident at Turn 12. Following the race, Marquez underwent medical examination to rule out any serious injury –his wounds limited to several bruises.
Rins fought for the victory, entering the home straight in the lead. Thanks to the slipstream strategy of Fenati, the Italian would take the win, with Viñales second and Rins relegated to third. The Spaniard’s 16 points put him third in the overall standings –17 behind leader Miller. Alex Marquez is sixth, 44 points from the top. Both Rins and Marquez will be testing with their team this coming Tuesday, June 3rd.
Álex Rins >> AUDIO
3rd a 0.011 sec.
“It was a very slow race with many passes. At first, Fenati, Miller, Marquez and I tried to break away from the group, but some younger riders lacking in experience at leading races slowed us down a bit. We finished third in the end and we are a little sad about that, because I knew that if I got out of the final corner in the lead, I would not win. Fenati was cleverer than us this time. With Miller crashing out, we have gained a little ground in the standings, but there is still a long way to go. In two days time we will have some testing here at Mugelllo, so we will be raring to go at Montmelo.”
Álex Márquez >> AUDIO
Fall
“Despite the crash, I can leave Italy feeling good about our performance. I think we have taken a major step forward compared to at other Grands Prix and here we were very competitive, both in practice, the warmup and the race. In the end we had bad luck, because on the last lap everyone fights to gain places and sometimes they overreach themselves. But this is racing and at Montmelo I will try to do well in front of the home fans. The positive is that we have not lost ground on the series leader, who was the one who caused the crash. Now we will try to forget this and keep fighting for the podium at every circuit, to try to get a victory as soon as possible.”
