Márquez has already completed three Suzuki years in the World Cup premier class and the Spaniard has been able to improve steadily over the years. In 2017 he finished sixteenth in the World Cup, a year later he found himself in fifth place in the table after a long season and last season it was enough for fourth place with two wins and a second place.
In his second triumph of the season in Great Britain, he prevailed against champion Marc Márquez. The 27-year-old from Cervera, who won his eighth world championship title last year, was anything but happy afterwards, as Rins recalls in the “MotoGP Live Interview Round” with Kevin Schwantz and Jack Appleyard. «For me, Marc is the opponent to be beaten. The rivalry is very intense, »he said.
“I already had a couple of encounters with him on the slopes in 2019 and of course I’m a little upset if he wins or finishes before me,” the Barcelona driver admits frankly. «Of course I want to hit him, but it’s no different for him. I can still remember Silverstone when I defeated him, he was so angry! »
Rins knows in which areas his compatriot from the Repsol Honda camp is particularly strong: «Marc is so good with these mental things, he plays with a lot of drivers. As an example, I think of the Brno race last year. I did a quick lap and he looked around and saw me. He opened something, but not too much. I drove on the dry line and we touched. My lap was over, but I kept pushing. In the end he overtook me so narrowly in the last chicane that we almost produced a crash – then he turned into the pits. »
«This scene comes to my mind and I knew that Marc saw me as an opponent at the time. I like that, of course, because it means that I am doing a good job, ”asserts the 14-time GP winner. «Marc is an incredibly good driver, he wins a lot of races and many titles. And if such a driver classifies me as an opponent, it also means that I fight with him at eye level. »
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