Marini thought of "revenge" on Rins for past Rossi defeat in COTA MotoGP race

Rins capitalised on a second successive grand prix crash for Francesco Bagnaia to end Honda’s victory drought in MotoGP, while notching up LCR’s 100th podium.

It also marked Rins’ second MotoGP win at the Circuit of The Americas. He took his maiden premier class victory there in 2019 after defeating Valentino Rossi in a memorable head-to-head fight.

Marini took over the chase of Rins on lap 13 of 20 when he passed Yamaha’s Fabio Quartararo, and briefly got the LCR Honda rider’s lead down to 1.7 seconds.

Marini admits he thought about his half-brother’s 2019 defeat at this point, and felt he might be able to settle the score. But Rins was able to pull a 3.4s gap to the chequered flag.

“Yeah, I remember that in one moment in one lap, exiting Turn 1, I had this image in my mind,” Marini remarked after coming home second to score his maiden grand prix podium.

“And I thought that it was maybe possible to take revenge. But Alex is very strong at this track, so we will try next time. I tried!”

Alex Rins consigned Valentino Rossi to second in their 2019 COTA duel

Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images

Rins, who also won at COTA in Moto3 and Moto2, added: “When I saw on my pit board Marini, I said ‘woah, keep going, keep going because he will try’.”

Rossi retired from MotoGP at the end of the 2021 season to embark on a GT racing career with WRT.

Though he has his own team in MotoGP, Rossi rarely visits the paddock, which makes it “difficult” for Marini to gain much advice from the nine-time world champion.

“With Vale, it was easier when he was riding here in MotoGP,” Marini said when asked how much advice Rossi gives him during race weekends.

“It's difficult for him to give advice from home, because you cannot see the tyres, you cannot see the temperature, you cannot see the pace. There's a lot you can't understand.

“But when he comes to see us at the races, he notices a lot more from the service road than all the other people that go around. And he can tell you ways to improve. So it’s fantastic to have him here in the garage sometimes.”