Suzuki rider Rins
put paid to Rossi’s
hopes for a win40 AUTOSPORT.COM 18 APRIL 2019MOTOGP
AUSTIN (USA)
14 APRIL
ROUND 3/19Honda’s Marc Marquez was aiming for
a magnificent seven at Austin, but all
he received was a taste of true grit. A
stunned Austin crowd gasped in unison as
he tumbled from his Honda while leading,
spoiling his spotless winning record there
and opening the door for Suzuki’s Alex Rins
to claim his first MotoGP victory.
It had all been going to plan before
Marquez’s front wheel folded beneath him
at less than 50mph at the Turn 12 hairpin,
sending the five-time champion sprawling
ignominiously into the runoff. There, he
attempted to remount several times, but
the bike steadfastly refused to restart –
and he even managed to fall off it againin comedic fashion, which was his cue
to give up and walk away!
Before that moment, Marquez looked
as imperious as ever around the Circuit of
the Americas. Even his great rival Valentino
Rossi admitted he has “some secrets and
tricks” that nobody else can emulate.
Perhaps the only surprising aspect about
Marquez’s pole lap (his seventh here)
was that Rossi was just 0.273s off it.
The third member of the front row,
LCR Honda’s Cal Crutchlow, made the
best getaway but Marquez braked late
into Turn 1 and held sway, leading Rossi,
Crutchlow, Jack Miller (Pramac Ducati)
and Rins – who made a great start
from the third row to grab fifth.
The other man making progress was
Ducati’s Andrea Dovizioso, who didn’t
even make it to Q2 in qualifying but
proved he wasn’t messing about onRins joins the
MotoGP elite as
Marquez tumbles
WORLD OF SPORT
ALL PICS: GOLD AND GOOSErace day by getting within two tenths of
Marquez in the warm-up. From 13th on
the grid, he immediately surged to eighth,
and further demoted Pol Espargaro (KTM)
and Maverick Vinales (Yamaha) to run
sixth by the end of the opening lap.
The first part of the race ran true to
form, with Marquez pulling away from
Rossi. His lead reached 3.7 seconds by the
end of lap eight, despite Rossi’s best efforts
to hang with him. But one can only imagine
the emotion that occurred inside Rossi’s
helmet when he saw Marquez exit the race
ahead of him. “I was a little bit surprised,”
Valentino smiled later.
Was America about to get its first Rossi
win since Indianapolis 2008? Sadly for
him, it was not. Rins seemed spurred
on by Marquez’s exit, knowing that only
Rossi stood between him and his first top-
level success. As with most of the younger
riders of today, Rossi was Rins’ boyhood
hero. Again, imagine the emotions...
Rins took half a second out of Rossi
on lap 10, and with five laps to go he
went into full-on stalk mode, probing
for an opportunity where his Suzuki was
stronger. While Rossi was determinedly
holding him off in the big braking zones,
Rins looked elsewhere to pounce.
His move at Turn 7 on lap 17 was sublime,
diving to Rossi’s left side and claiming the
apex at a place where little passing usually
happens. Just four corners later, Rins
ran wide... but Rossi followed him in
doing so. Encouraged by the mistake,
Rossi attacked immediately – as is