Rins rode in the front group from the start of the restarted 20-lap Austrian GP, outperforming the Ducatis in front of him, passing Pramac’s Jack Miller for second on lap 10.
Rins trailed Dovizioso and passed the inside of the Ducati factory rider at Turn 6 on the following lap, but lost the front of his Suzuki just as he took the lead. Ahead of the race, eventual winner Dovizioso had touted the Suzukis as a major threat on Sunday, with Rins admitting the feeling he had during the race “hasn’t often been felt” in his career.
“Everything went very well, I really wanted to win the race,” said Rins. “I haven’t felt that feeling very often, but I really felt it [able] to win. Too bad, but the two Suzukis were there, Joan [Mir] on the podium, a great result for the brand. So we’ll see what happens this weekend.”
Rins had a moment at the front end of his Suzuki on the same corner where he crashed the previous lap and believes his crash was due to braking with a little more bank angle than on previous tours.
“Maybe the mistake was to stop the bike with more [lean] Angle,” added Rins. “From what we saw in the telemetry I was a lot more crooked than the previous lap when I was on the gas and that caused me to lose the front end.”
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Mir admitted ahead of the weekend that he found a podium finish ‘difficult’ and believes the improved qualifying form and his start ‘made all the difference’ in finishing second on the podium for the first time.
“Well, if you said before the weekend that I would be on the podium, I would say it’s going to be difficult for sure,” Mir said. “But the truth is the bike is working really well here, in FP1 I felt so good here in Austria. If you start with a good base, it’s easier to get a little closer to the weekend.
“It was hard to fight with these guys [Dovizioso and Miller] is difficult. They’re really strong in sectors one and two but then it looks like our bike is pretty competitive and pretty good. So a good podium for me. I think we made the difference this weekend because we improved in qualifying and then the start was good.
“[That] was our weak point. Normally we have a good race pace but we are fighting [usually in qualifying] and then it’s difficult to regain positions.”