Honda’s Alex Rins brought back the glory of a win in Austin

Thursday at Austin Media Day Alex Rins is clamoring for Honda to use it, “It’s not that they don’t listen very much, because when we try something big or fast I go and such they come to the box, they are interested, but they don’t take advantage of me.” The Barcelonan from LCR Honda is the closest thing to Marc Márquez who can be found on the grid in a final fight, he always tries it and also has a relationship with Austin like him. He is the only driver to win all three categories since he entered the calendar in 2013 and as of this Sunday he has won the Texan hat with two brands, 2019 with Suzuki and 2023 with Honda. And after the second and first this weekend, he is third in the championship, 17 points behind Bezzecchi and six behind Bagnaia.

It was his sixth MotoGP victory, the first five with Suzuki and the only three Grand Prix that Honda has taken first. Since Misano’2021 a Honda pilot has not won, since the last victory of Dani Pedrosa with Honda at Valencia 2017 no driver other than Marc Márquez has won for them. And since Argentina’2018 the boss Lucio Cecchinello has not celebrated a victory, after Cal Crutchlow, for your LCR Honda satellite.

And Rins (MotoGP), Acosta (Moto2) and Ortolá (Moto3) added the 39th Spanish triplet in a Grand Prix, the first in Cheste’22 and the last three trees with Alex Rins as the common denominator.

Absences due to injury Marc Marquez and Enea Bastianini, the last two MotoGP winners in Austin and between eight of nine wins since the Las Americas GP arrived on the calendar in 2013, left the prognosis open before arriving in Texas. But when the Grand Prix started, one rider emerged as the favorite above all, the current world champion Pecco Bagnaia, the man at number 1 on his Ducati who was also motivated by the need to change his mistake in the race in Argentina fifteen days that was a while ago. to one who surrenders the lead. But the first third of a championship for Bagnaia began to be a test for him.

In Saturday’s Sprint race, the only Texas winner from the big grid present, Alex Rins, started to show his foot by being second after Bagnaia. In 2019 with Suzuki, he took his first victory in MotoGP in a duel with Valentino Rossi himself and after wiping out Marc Márquez when he fell with a lead of 3”6 in the ninth lap. Now riding an official Honda from the LCR satellite team, Alex sought to fight with the Ducati that has chained consecutive podiums since Aragón’2021 between the pits of the circuit, the fatigue of one of the tightest that calendar race and unknown. of managing tires with a brand in which he has only three Grand Prix.

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From the beginning they all chose the same compounds, hard front and soft rear and the difference will be made by their settings and their hands.

From pole position, Bagnaia kept the initiative ahead of Rins and Marini, his teammates on the front row, and the race ended in just three corners for Alex Márquez, who started fourth, and Jorge Martín, after a good start from 12th place, when the man from in Madrid the brake was pressed and it was removed. And in the 12 curves Aleix Espargaró also said goodbye, three of the Sprint animators on Saturday said goodbye to the first change.

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At the front Bagnaia pressed from the first laps to have a cushion of half a second with Rins, with Miller and Quartararo close behind them. The Barcelonan from Honda tried to follow the number 1 Ducati on the basis of the fastest lap in the race at this start, responding to the great favorite lap after lap once they were both left alone with Miller and the KTM trying to catch up in he crashed on the seventh lap leaving the provisional third drawer to Quartararo and Marini. The first two sectors of Rins, are huge, and only Bagnaia can respond to acceleration T3.

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Rins forces Bagnaia’s mistake

And Alex Rins finally managed to force Pecco Bagnaia’s mistake to go too wide and after hitting a pothole he went to the ground at turn 2 on the eighth lap, the second consecutive zero in the race for the reigning champion to run. from regaining leadership and entering the same bad dynamics of the beginning of the last campaign.

Rins found himself in the lead with a 2″ lead over Quartararo and Marini and now had the peace of mind to manage the wheels at will. There were 10 to go, in case they had already sent the ‘mapping 2’ message. on the dashboard to start managing, but we have to keep an eye on the track because there have already been nine crashes in 11 laps, the last of which was his teammate Taka Nakagami and Rins is now the only official Honda in the race.

With 8 to go, Marini shot past Quartararo on the straight for second position and behind Maverick Viñales, after messing it up again at the start, he moved up through the pack for fourth ahead of leader Marco Bezzecchi until when the relay reached six to six. you go. The podium at that moment was in the hands of Quartararo, at 3″5.

Rins managed his mattress though from 2″5 he went to 2″ over Marini with four to go as the Italian let go of Quartararo. Marini cemented his first MotoGP podium in a race – apart from his third in the Termas Sprint which did not count for statistics – and Quartararo, the first since Sepang last year.

With two remaining, Rins’ two pursuers had given up their respective positions as Rins tried to add kilometers without fail for his sixth MotoGP victory, second at Austin and first at Honda and calmly move from the wall of the boss Lucio Cecchinello . It’s unfortunate for Maverick Viñales that his problems at the start, which happened to him in the Sprint, condemned him to finish on the podium. With his sixth place, Marco Bezzecchi maintains the lead with 11 podiums.

As for the rest of the Spaniards, the rookie Augusto Fernández, the first KTM-Gas Gas, was tenth, Raúl Fernández retired on the seventh lap after being caught in the rear holeshot and Joan Mir fell on the eighth lap and on the first lap Aleix Espargaró, who suffered the same breakdown as Raúl Fernández, Jorge Martín and Alex Márquez