01 Sep, 2024
Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP's Álex Rins put up a good fight at the Gran Premio de Aragón today, riding from P21 to P9. Fabio Quartararo had a strong first five laps again and was riding in 12th place when a crash ended his Race prematurely.
Alcañiz (Spain), 1st September 2024 : Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP's Álex Rins showed his fighting spirit at the MotorLand Aragón today, riding from P21 to P9. The Gran Premio de Aragón was a Race to forget for Fabio Quartararo. A crash in Turn 5 ended his chances to fight for championship points.
Rins started from P21, and after the opening stages he was in 19th place, shadowing Joan Mir around the Aragon track to overtake him on lap 5. With his teammate crashing out on lap 6, the Spaniard was circulating in 17th place and chasing down three riders fighting for 14th position. The Yamaha man overtook them successively: Johann Zarco on lap 8, Raul Fernandez on lap 9, and Augusto Fernandez on lap 10.
Rins had manoeuvred himself into 14th place by then and upped the pace. He only needed a few laps to shake off the riders behind him whilst chipping away at the 2.2s gap to the two riders ahead. By lap 15, he started threatening Aleix Espargaro and Takaaki Nakagami, plotting his strategy. Meanwhile, Alex Marquez and Francesco Bagnaia collided with 6 laps to go. Rins was now in 12th place and made light work of overtaking Espargaro and Nakagami on lap 20 and 21 to enter the top 10. With 2 laps to go, the number-42 rider fancied his chances and chased down Jack Miller, who he overtook in the last sector of the last lap to take a brilliant ninth place, 39.420s from first.
Quartararo had hoped to replicate his Sprint start, but this time there was no way through from P17. Nevertheless, he was able to muscle his way up to 13th place on the first lap. On lap 4, he overtook Raul Fernandez and was keen to close the gap to the riders in front of him, but a crash in Turn 5 on lap 6 ended his challenge.
Today's results see Quartararo in 15th place in the overall standings with 51 points. Rins climbs to 20th position with 15 points. Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP keep their 9th place in the team championship with 66 points, and Yamaha hold on to 4th position in the constructor's championship with 62 points.
MotoGP will be back in action at the Misano World Circuit Marco Simoncelli in Misano, Italy, next week for the Gran Premio di San Marino e della Riviera di Rimini.
