Team Suzuki Press Office – May 1st Team SUZUKI ECSTAR’s Aleix Espargaro and Maverick Viñales completed a positive opening day of MotoGP™ practice at the Circuit of Jerez de la Frontera, Spain in second and 10th places respectively.
Espargaro’s combined times aboard his GSX-RR put the 25-year-old Spaniard on a provisional front-row start, just 0.049-seconds from Pole Position, while 20-year-old fellow countryman Viñales’ combined result is just 0.735-seconds down ahead of Sunday’s fourth round of the series at the Spanish circuit.
Although hotter temperatures in FP2 didn’t see improved lap-times, Espargaro was consistently in the upper-part of the classification for both sessions, finally putting his GSX-RR into second place overall with a 1’39.223 lap-time.
Viñales, who is gaining confidence with his GSX-RR at the tight-and-twisting Jerez circuit, was consistently up around 10th place throughout FP1 and FP2, setting a best time of 1’39.909.
Davide Brivio – Team Manager:
“We had a positive day of work here at Jerez: Aleix is in provisional 2nd place, Maverick also in the top-10 and they improved their lap-times each lap. We have worked on testing our tyres in order to prepare for the race and also tried different steps regarding bike set-ups. This is mainly the normal work we do every weekend, but we have a positive feeling and we are satisfied. In the afternoon the temperatures were much hotter than in the morning, and this made it very difficult for everybody to set better lap-times, but both Aleix and Maverick were fast in both conditions. This also gave us the chance to start preparing for the race. Our objective is to get closer and closer to the top and today was certainly in this direction.”
Aleix Espargaro:
“The day has been positive and particularly in the afternoon’s session we set a good pace. We had some improvements with the chattering on the rear and I also feel competitive in the hot temperatures. For me, tomorrow will be a good qualifying test. We will aim to be very close to the pole, but we also have a strong pace for the race. Of course it is only the first day but it’s been a good start.”
Maverick Viñales:
“The weekend had a positive start. At the moment we are in Q2 times, which is good, but we know that tomorrow we will have to cut times and get closer to the low 1’39 bracket if we want to be competitive. We also worked on the pace today. We still need almost half-a-second a lap, but I think we can do it. Tomorrow we will finalise some aspects of the set-up and this should make us even more competitive. We tried both tyres today and honestly there’s not such a difference between the two of them in terms of single lap performance, but we still need to test a couple of things in FP4 to make a final decision for the race. At the moment we would choose the hard tyre because it would give us more endurance for the final laps of the race.”
GP of Spain – Combined classification after FP2:
1. Jorge LORENZO, Movistar Yamaha MotoGP – 1’39.174
2. Aleix ESPARGARO, Team SUZUKI ECSTAR – 1’39.223 +0.049
3. Marc MARQUEZ, Repsol Honda Team – 1’39.428 +0.254
4. Andrea IANNONE, Ducati Team – 1’39.511 +0.337
5. Andrea DOVIZIOSO, Ducati Team – 1’39.535 +0.361
6. Danilo PETRUCCI, Pramac Racing – 1’39.718 +0.544
7. Cal CRUTCHLOW, CWM LCR Honda – 1’39.737 +0.563
8. Pol ESPARGARO, Monster Yamaha Tech 3 – 1’39.871 +0.697
9. Valentino ROSSI, Movistar Yamaha MotoGP – 1’39.872 +0.698
10. Maverick VIÑALES, Team SUZUKI ECSTAR – 1’39.909 +0.735
