Alex Rins was the only rider who could match Fabio Quartararo’s pace during Sunday’s Portimao MotoGP, but the Suzuki rider walked away empty-handed after a late fall.
While Quartararo dropped from pole to sixth place on the first lap, Rins kept his second place and overtook his starting colleague Johann Zarco on lap 4 of 25.
The recovering Quartararo took advantage of Rins on lap 9 and then set a searing pace free. But Rins stuck to his rear wheel and set a new lap record on lap 18. At this point they were a few seconds away from the field.
But any chance of a winning showdown and an almost certain first podium of the season ended shortly afterwards when Rins lost the front of his GSX-RR and slipped out of the race at Turn 5.
“I’m pretty impressed because I’ve improved a lot compared to last year,” said Rins, who finished 15th last November and was almost 30 seconds ahead of the winner. “But in the end we couldn’t get our award because of the crash.
“I drove to the limit. Fabio was very strong, but it felt like a good limit and at no point did I feel that I was over the limit.”
On the subject of matching items
“Sometimes when you’re at the limit the bike shakes and spins in all the corners, you can’t breathe. But this time I rode pretty well. I rode at the limit, but relaxed. I was very controlled. Well, the spin, the wear and tear of the tire.
“It’s a great shame because we analyzed the crash and the data and I didn’t do anything wrong on this corner. Same braking point, same pressure on the brakes. But sometimes it happens.
“Today I went to the Moto3 warm-up and it looked like Qatar. A lot of dust on the track. But lap after lap the line got better and better,” he added. “I also spoke to Vale and he said that he analyzed his fall and that it was the same as the previous lap.
On the subject of matching items
“I’m not saying that the Michelin tires are doing very badly because I set a good pace and I was there with Fabio. But maybe the condition of the track wasn’t 100% today.
“Today’s win was a little difficult, but we lost 20 very important points.”
Quartararo won the race 4.8 seconds ahead of Francesco Bagnaia (Ducati), while Rins’ team-mate Joan Mir completed the podium.