
A studious chase, unwavering consistency and the attack on the master: Alex Rins fashioned a first MotoGP victory to remember for the third Grand Prix of the year and a dramatic and sun-kissed affair in Austin, Texas.
Bumpy and ruthless, the Circuit of The Americas was - once more – one of the hardest and twistiest stages of the MotoGP season. A spring thunderstorm on Saturday morning robbed all three classes of a Free Practice session but the skies overhead were deep and blue come Sunday and for twenty barrelling laps of action.
Another strong blue presence was Rins. The Suzuki-mounted Spaniard hunted the smoking rear slick of Valentino Rossi in a duel for second place until world champion Marc Marquez surprisingly slipped out of a clear lead on the way to what would have been a seventh successive flag at ‘COTA’. The spar between the 23 and 40 year old then took on more intensity: Rins almost tasting his first win in MotoGP and the first since 2016 and Rossi again in the hunt for his first triumph since the 2017 Grand Prix at Assen.