MotoGP Valencia: ‘Amazing finish’ for Rins, ‘not worried by Honda’

Alex Rins signed off on six years with the Suzuki Ecstar MotoGP squad by claiming victory at Valencia on Sunday afternoon.

And a decisive victory at that. Rins took charge from the first corner of the 27-lap race - from fifth on the grid - and never looked back. Crossing the line three tenths of a second clear of a rapidly approaching Brad Binder, after the KTM had dispatched longtime runner up Jorge Martin, Rins maintained his advantage until the flag to claim his second victory in the closing three races of a turbulent 2022.

“It was amazing to the finish the season like this,” Rins said after the celebrations. “Suzuki is leaving so I couldn’t do it better, getting the first position.

“From the beginning till the end was quite good, but at the same time difficult, difficult to manage.

“First of all, during this weekend, many emotions comes to my body, to my mind. So I tried to keep it out of sight because yesterday, the quali was so important and we did it quite well starting, on P5. Also, the concentration was so difficult. During the grid I was saying ‘bye bye’ to the mechanics and I was crying, all the emotions comes to me. At the same point I say ‘Alex come on, be focused because you have a race’.

“We did a great start going first on the first corner and then was not easy to control this race because Jorge was super fast and Brad was coming so, so fast also. So I couldn’t do any mistake. I try to do my line, to don’t do any mistakes, controlling the tyres and in the end we did it.

“We saw again, that with a Suzuki we can get the victory. They took the decision in the fourth race to close the racing line in MotoGP. So I give it my 100 per cent. This is the 100 per cent!”

The win was a poignant and popular conclusion