'Unbelievable' - Rins salvages 10th, Suzuki holeshot debut

Alex Rins defied the pain from last weekend's dislocated and fractured right shoulder, plus melting 63-degree track temperatures, to salvage tenth place in Sunday's Andalucia MotoGP.

The Suzuki star had been no higher than 20th on the timesheets in four of his six track sessions heading into the race, sitting out FP3 completely to try and limit the strain on his shoulder.

“The race was unbelievable; I was already suffering from the moment I joined the grid before the start," Rins said.

Given the clear question mark over whether Rins would be able to complete the 25 laps, it was perhaps not a surprise that Suzuki later confirmed to Crash.net that he had given their new holeshot device it's race debut on Sunday. With impressive results.

"I got an incredible start," Rins said, "but as the laps went on I started to feel more and more pain."

The Spaniard settled into 16th in the early stages then, as accidents and technical problems thinned out the field, progressed to tenth by lap 20 of 25. But it was a gruelling experience.

"With seven laps to go, it was really tough to continue; but after all the work that I’ve done since last weekend, as well as the doctors and my team, I just wanted to keep going," Rins said.

"I never lost my faith and it allowed me to take this tenth place."

Team Manager Davide Brivio added: “I have to say thank you very much to Alex for the amazing effort he put in following the serious injury he got last weekend.

"Staying on the bike for 25 laps in this heat is very hard, and he really deserved the tenth place finish. We saw a lot of people crashing, and it was a very hard race for everyone."

Team-mate Joan Mir, who did not try Suzuki's (front fork) holeshot device, qualified tenth and finished fifth.

LCR Honda's Cal Crutchlow, riding with a recent wrist fracture, also reached the finish, in 13th.