Rins’ rules at Island GP

By Peter Cleeland

ALEX Rins pulled off a remarkable victory at the 18th round of the MotoGP championship at Phillip Island where 40,000 spectators were treated to some absolutely exhilarating motorsport. 

The Island turned on some sunny clear blue skies on Sunday for the main event after an early morning heavy shower, which disrupted the MotoGP warm up session.

The lead into the event was marred by a torrential downpour on Thursday that had parts of the track submerged in large pools of water, hence track officials did a great job in preparing the circuit for free practice on Friday and qualifying on Saturday. 

All teams were hampered by inclement weather when trying to set up their respective bikes on Friday, with Aussie Jack Miller and Johann Zarco both on Ducati’s topping the timesheets in free practice one. 

Zarco was again dominant in session two of free practice where he whittled his lap time down to 1min 29.47seconds. 

Marco Bezzecchi, Pol Esparagro and Fabio Quatararo filled the next three places. Ducati pair Pecco Bagnaia (8th) and Jack Miller (13th) were left with quite a lot of work to do to establish good starting positions on the grid.

With the qualifying one session on Saturday Johann Zarco (Ducati) and Alex Rins (Suzuki) progressed through to qualifying two to contest the shootout for the top 12 places on the starting grid. 

Spanish rider Jorge Martin (Ducati) wound up the wick to record 354.4kmph down the main straight and claim not only pole position but the outright lap record which had stood for the previous nine years. 

In fact, three other riders also went under lap record pace, one being Marc Marquez (Honda) which was truly remarkable considering he had mid-season surgery and was out of the sport for six weeks.

So the starting grid was established with Martin, Marquez and Bagnaia on the front row, with other championship contenders Aleix Esparagro and Fabio Quatararo sitting on row two. 

Aussies Jack Miller (Ducati) was eighth on the grid and Remy Gardner sat in 20th position.

When the lights went out Jorge Martin blasted away to take the lead from Marc Marquez and Pecco Bagnaia. 

Martin led for four laps before Bagnaia took over at the front. 

Local hope Jack Miller on his approach to turn four was tramlined by Honda rider Alex Marquez who got his aims mixed up with his ability. 

Miller who was taken out while running in the leading group was understandably disappointed as were the pro Aussie home crowd. 

As the race progressed Bagnaia had a new challenger for the lead in Alex Rins (Suzuki), who had worked his way from tenth on the grid to fourth on the track. 

With Marc Marquez running in second anything was possible. Rins made his move to the front overtaking Bagnaia and Marquez, but the Italian Bagnaia reclaimed the lead in a topsy turvy affair. 

Moving into the last lap both Rins and Marquez got the better of the Ducati rider going through the long left hand sweeping bend that is Southern Loop. 

The glory was now a race in two between Alex Rins and Marc Marquez with Marquez closing in on Rins at Lukey Heights. 

In a sprint to the line Alex Rins was able to stave off his fellow Spanish rider, although Marquez had the advantage of the tow of the slipstream. 

Rins prevailed in a stunning popular victory.

French rider and championship leader Fabio Quartararo, who had led the title by two points arriving in Australia, put in an error-prone performance where he had run off the track just four laps into the race, and he then low sided into the gravel at Southern Loop while running in 15th on lap 11. 

He now sits 14 points behind Pecco Bagnaia, who is now surely the favourite to become world champion.

For Alex Rins this must surely go down as his most famous victory as he was simply magnificent dealing with the pressure being exerted by Marquez and Bagnaia. 

It will be a great loss to MotoGP if Rins cannot find a ride to replace the Suzuki team, which is folding at the end of this season. 

While Jack Miller got bulldozed Alex Rins more than gave the paying public satisfaction and entertainment for parting with their hard earned.

Moto2 Lopez Streets Opposition

The supporting race was completed dominated by Alonso Lopez. 

Such was his control of the race that Lopez did a mandatory long lap penalty and still went onto win the race by 3.5 seconds from Pedro Acosta and Englishman Jake Dixon. 

Augusto Fernandez didn’t do his title hopes any good as he through the bike down the road at Southern Loop while comfortably holding down second place. 

Japanese rider Ai Ogura holds a slender 3.5 points advantage over Fernandez going into the next round in Malaysia.

Moto3 Guevara wins the championship

Izan Guevara sealed his world championship win by being first across the line at the Phillip Island round. 

Guevara led an exciting race where a group of eight riders including Australia’s Joel Kelso broke away from the remainder of the field. 

By mid-race the leading group had been reduced to four who continually swapped places at the front of the pack. 

At the chequered flag Denis Oncu was 0.345 seconds behind Guevara with Sergio Garcia a very close third. 

Joel Kelso can be commended for his eighth placing beating home a number of better credentialled riders.