Rins Fights for P9 Finish at 2024 MotoGP Aragon

After spending the summer to recover from an injury, Álex Rins showcased incredible riding skills at MotorLand Aragón, finishing P9. A crash at Turn 5 ended Fabio Quartararo’s Race early, along with his chance to fight for championship points.

Starting from P21 on the grid, Rins climbed to P19 after the opening stages, shadowing Joan Mir before overtaking him on lap 5. After Quartararo crashed out on lap 6, Rins chased down Johann Zarco, Raul Fernandez and Augusto Fernandez before overtaking them for P14.

From there Rins upped his pace and focused on narrowing the 2.2sec gap between himself and Aleix Espargaro and Takaaki Nakagami. He overtook them on lap 20 and 21 to enter the top 10, and with two laps remaining, he overtook Jack Miller in the last sector of the last lap to finish brilliantly in P9, 39.420sec from the race winner.

“Starting from P21 wasn’t easy,” Rins explained. “Even after it rained I was still able to succeed by resetting and riding the bike well. It’s a small boost to continue working hard.”

El Diablo hoped to replicate his Sprint start, but it was difficult starting from P17. Nevertheless, Quartararo muscled his way up to P13 on the first lap, but a crash at Turn 5 on lap 6 ended his challenge prematurely.

“I was trying to catch up to the riders ahead of me, went a bit too fast and lost the front tire,” Quartararo said. “I found the limit too fast.”

Following the Aragón GP, Quartararo is 15th in the overall standings with 51 points, while Rins climbs up to 20th with 15 points. Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP holds ninth in the team championship with 66 points, and Yamaha is fourth in the manufacturer championship with 62 points.