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MotoGP, Rins: "I passed Marquez at the only point where I was faster."

Second sprint win of the season: "Marquez wanted me to pull, but I didn't want to. Two laps from the end, I closed the throttle. I thought it was going to end. I learned a lot from Rossi and Marc today."

MotoGP: Rins: "I passed Marquez at the only point where I was faster."

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In the end, he won. After a very long race behind Marc Marquez's exhaust - who played a lot with his nerves - Alex Rins passed the world champion at the last corner. A Dovi move.

So Rins took home a second victory of the year for him and for Suzuki, which hasn't won two races in a season in 19 years when, in 2000, Kenny Roberts Jr. won four, bringing the 500 class championship to Hammamatsu. Alex is amazing and his excitement at the end of the race is contagious.

"What a crazy race," he said. "It wasn't easy to stay behind Marc all those laps, but my pace was really good. At one point, he closed the throttle a little because he wanted me to go ahead, but I knew it wouldn't have been a good move. I didn't want to be pulling him."

Then that pass that beat Marquez. The champion was once again defeated at the last turn of the last lap (which has becomes a slight obsession)

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"Passing him was great ," said Rins. "I had studied that because I knew I could only pass Marc there. I suffered at 16 and 17 compared to him, but I managed to stay close. During the attack, I didn't think much. I came in strong, and I knew I could do it."

A race mostly behind Marquez but, in the early laps, Rins had to race in Valentino Rossi's exhaust. What did you get from these laps, racing behind two champions like they are?

"I learned a lot from both Valentino and Marc," said Rins. Yamaha had a great pace today, and if Quartararo hadn't fallen, he could have kept up with me and Marquez, and surely something would have changed."

At one point, you lost contact with Marquez. What happened?

"Yes, at two laps from the end, I thought the race was over, so I closed the throttle, but I saw that Marquez kept pushing, and I got back in again. Fortunately, I managed to close the gap."

It wasn't the first time that Rins made a mistake in counting the laps. In Brno, in 2014, he cheered before the end, losing the race.

Going back to today, however, Suzuki proved to be very strong at Silverstone. Why is Hammamatsu's bike so fast here?

"I don't know. Ours is a really competitive bike on all the tracks, and the work done in these years is incredible," said Rins. "There have been many developments over the last few years, and I'm improving, even though I made mistakes this season, at the Sachsenring and in Assen. But I'm super happy to have won again with this bike, and I want to continue like this because I believe a lot in myself and in this team."

Translated by Leila Myftija
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