Rossi had finished second behind Marc Marquez, but when the Honda rider fell out of a comfortable lead on lap nine, the Italian inherited the lead and seemed well positioned for a first race win since the 2017 Dutch TT.
But Rins managed to stay close to Rossi’s tail and with four laps to go whipped the inside of his Yamaha opponent at the fast left-handed turn 7 to take the lead.
Rossi tried to fight back but ran far in Turn 12 and could never get close enough to Rins again to place another bid to regain the advantage and eventually settle for second place.
“I am very sorry [losing] the victory, ”said Rossi in Parc Ferme. “When I saw Marquez crash, I said, ‘Maybe I can,’ but after Rins got there.
“With best regards, I achieved the maximum, the race was very fast, but in the end he was better than me, he drives very well and I can’t overtake.
“I made two mistakes when braking, if not I might try an attack on the last lap, but that’s how it is. It’s a shame because I haven’t won in a long time, but we are strong and we will try. ” [again] next time.”
Not only did Rins take his first MotoGP win, but also ended a victory drought that stretched back to the 2016 British Grand Prix when Maverick Vinales took the spoils.
“I’m so happy I have no words to explain these feelings,” said an emotional Rins. “Thanks to Suzuki, they did a really good job, [making] a good bike all these years.
“I did my maximum, I’m so happy, my feeling is incredible. I beat Valentino, it’s incredible for me, he was my idol when I was very young. “
He added: “When we did the preseason I certainly thought we could win a race. We have a strong bike. In Qatar it was a very close win, in Argentina we started very backwards.
“In the warm-up it was a disaster for us. We tried a different set-up and it was worse and we went back to the standard set-up for the race and it was amazing.”
Suzuki team principal Davide Brivio was full of praise for Rins, who took on the number one coat on the team this season after Andrea Iannone’s departure for Aprilia.
Brivio told BT Sport: “We wanted to win a race this year, that was our goal. We wanted to do that. We expected it was our goal, we had to win a race.
“Let’s face it, Marquez’s crash helped. Then I’m happy because he had to fight Valentino Rossi and turned out to be quite mature, calm and thoughtful. “
Alex Rins, Team Suzuki MotoGP
Photo by: Gold and Goose / LAT Images