Ecstar Suzuki rider Alex Rins has renewed his deal with the Hamamatsu team until the end of 2022, as they go in search of a first premier class title since Kenny Roberts jr triumphed twenty years ago.
Provided we get racing in 2020, the new deal will see the Spaniard finish his sixth competitive season with the team, after making his Suzuki and MotoGP debut in 2017.
Speaking on the contract renewal, Rins said: “My wish was to continue with Suzuki and finally this is what I did. I believe that the project has the potential to be a winning one, I have the desire to win, and so we match perfectly.
It’s the perfect place for me, and we are working hard all together to get big results. I have always believed in the team and for this reason it was easy to get to the basic agreement very early on. Then we took some time to finalise the details and follow all the internal processes.”
With the current COVID-19 pandemic causing a delay to the 2020 season, Rins was involved in the opening Virtual MotoGP race three weeks ago in Mugello where he finished sixth.
While uncertainty regarding when the season will start remains, Rins is still heavily focused and ready for whenever that time comes.
“Now we have to understand what’s going to happen with the 2020 season, we are ready to compete at the maximum level, as we already showed in the pre-season tests. In this very moment the whole world is facing an unexpected situation that affects pretty much all countries and we need to be patient and see how it evolves.
We will make ourselves ready for when we will be called to start racing, whenever this will happen. Dorna is doing all they can to allow us to compete, but they are of course taking into account what matters most: the safety and health of people. We can only stay ready and wait to be told when we can start, and in the meantime focus on training.”
After showing flashes during an injury impacted rookie year, Rins demonstrated his talent with a brilliant second year in 2018, which yielded his first podium finish at COTA.
However, last season was the best yet for Rins as he claimed two superb victories. The first of those was a duel with Valentino Rossi at the American Grand Prix, where he beat the Italian after Marc Marquez crashed from the lead.
The 24 year-old then took his second win at Silverstone, after pipping Marquez in a photo finish.
