Rins was ‘crying on the grid’ before taking Suzuki’s farewell MotoGP win

The now five-time race winner jumped from fifth to first at the first corner, and led all of Sunday’s 27-lap finale at the Ricardo Tormo Circuit to claim a second victory of the season.

It was an emotional send-off for the factory Suzuki squad, whose participation in MotoGP has now come to an end after the Japanese marque decided to end the project just one year into a new five-year contract with the series’ promoters.

Rins says the emotion of the occasion got to him on the grid ahead of the race and had to “talk myself into” carrying on with the grand prix.

“It was great to end the season like this,” Rins said.

“Suzuki is leaving the sport, I couldn't have done it in a better way. From the beginning to the end it went well, but this was a difficult race to manage.

“Firstly, it was because of the emotions of this weekend, I really had to put it aside.

“Yesterday qualifying was very important, we did quite well with fifth place.

“It was hard to concentrate, but on the grid I saw the bike again and the mechanics, then I had to cry.

“All the emotions came out. I really had to talk myself into the fact that there was still a race to go.

Alex Rins, Team Suzuki MotoGP

Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images

“Then I made a great start, in the first corner I was first. Jorge [Martin] was very fast, Brad [Binder] was also fast at the end.

“I couldn't make any mistakes, had to drive my lines and manage the tyres.

“We showed we can win with Suzuki. They made the decision in the fourth race to take the team out of the championship. I gave everything and it worked out today."

Rins added that “it was very special to see all the members of the team so happy and to seem them crying” after his final victory for the squad.

The Spaniard says he will now ask the team to gift him the race-winning bike from Valencia, stating: "Definitely, I'm going to ask. I've already told [Shinichi] Sahara-san, it's very special.

“I looked at the rear tyre after the race and saw the names of all the team members on the bike, they had handwritten that on it.

“The messages from the fans were also very nice. We wanted this win so badly and it worked out.”