Alex Rins believes he had the speed to win the Italian Grand Prix at Mugello, but the Spaniard was left to rue a lack of straight line speed in his bid for victory.
The Suzuki man, who secured his first MotoGP victory at the North American round of the championship at the Circuit of the Americas back in April, quickly battled his way up from his lowly 13th place on the grid to the top six on the opening lap.
He then remained in the leading group until the end of the race, marginally missing out on a podium finish in fourth just 0.535 behind the race winning Ducati of Danilo Petrucci.
Rins suffered with a lack of straight line speed down the 1.1 km Mugello start-finish straight, losing a hard-fought lead several times as the more powerful Ducati’s and Honda of Marc Marquez blasted past on the run to San Donato.
"After the race I was feeling disappointed, more or less I have the same feeling as I did in Qatar," explained Rins.
"I had the rhythm to spend more time at the front and fight for the win but anyway, I tried 100 per cent and pushed really hard. Even up to last corner as I tried to overtake Dovizioso, but his traction was better than me. So, we finish fourth, but I am happy.”
Rins also believes that his sub-par qualifying had little bearing on his final race result, as he didn’t have to battle his way through many other riders following his storming first lap.
"I don’t think that if we had a better qualifying the result would be better,”
"I’m lucky because I recovered a lot of positions on the first lap, but we struggled on the straight. Before coming here to Mugello, we knew that the long straight would be difficult for us.
"If we think about the championship then yes, it’s a good position and a lot of points. But, if we think race by race then no, I am angry. This is a long championship and results like this are good for the championship so 13 points is what I bring home."
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