Team Suzuki Press Office – July 10. The first encounter at the German Grand Prix looks to be harder than usual for Team SUZUKI ECSTAR’s riders, with both Aleix Espargaro and Maverick Viñales struggling to immediately find a good feeling with the track on their GSX-RRs.
As usual, both crews worked hard to find a basic set-up that could make the riders feel comfortable so as to find a good pace, but the Sachsenring circuit will require some extra work from the engineers and riders to make this happen.
In both today’s sessions Espargarò and Viñales made several changes to make their GSX-RRs easier to ride, but the lack of information they have at the track caused by being a new team is at the moment preventing them to be nearer the top of the time sheets. The team also focused on race preparation, testing some solutions that can be more effective over race distance than on a single, quick lap. This allowed the engineers to collect the much-needed feedback to determine the direction they will go in for tomorrow morning. The third free practice session will then be important to determine how they approach qualifying, therefore Espargarò and Viñales will try to better improve the settings of their GSX-RR chassis to make the most of the strengths of their motorcycles as they head towards qualifying tomorrow afternoon.
Davide Brivio – Team Manager:
“This was a very intense day for us. With us being a new team this means that every Friday we have to start from scratch without previous data to improve on or move from. In the last races we could find a good direction to move in pretty quickly while here we probably need some more time. At the end of the day Aleix could make some improvements finally ending the session in sixth place, while with Maverick we focused a little more on the race preparation than on a single lap time. Tonight we will better analyse the data and will look for some better machine set-ups for tomorrow; we still have room for improvements if we find good configurations in both set-up and electronics.”
Aleix Espargaro:
“I have to say that I’m not really happy because today it was a difficult day for us, I couldn’t find a good compromise with my machines as we did in other races and I struggled a lot to make it turn as I wanted. In the afternoon we made some big changes to my Number 1 bike, but they proved to be ineffective, we tried with bike Number 2 to be more competitive but the time was against us. At the end of the day we found a good direction to work on, so far I’m not really happy, but I’m confident that the info we got today will help us to make some steps forward tomorrow.”
Maverick Viñales:
“I’m not happy with today, I couldn’t find a proper set-up that made me feel confident, we worked hard but we are still far from the top. This morning we spent a lot of time finalising the settings of the electronics, but we still suffer. I miss some traction from the rear and this prevented me from making a good fast lap. For tomorrow we need to see the data and try to find some new solutions in set-up and electronics that could make me more comfortable on the bike.”
GP of Germany – FP2 Classification:
1. Marc MARQUEZ, Repsol Honda Team – 1’21.621
2. Bradley SMITH, Monster Yamaha Tech 3 – 1’21.740 +0.119
3. Andrea IANNONE, Ducati Team – 1’21.824 +0.203
4. Jorge LORENZO, Movistar Yamaha MotoGP – 1’21.886 +0.265
5. Dani PEDROSA, Repsol Honda Team – 1’21.889 +0.268
6. Aleix ESPARGARO, Team SUZUKI ECSTAR – 1’22.095 +0.474
7. Valentino ROSSI, Movistar Yamaha MotoGP – 1’22.159 +0.538
8. Scott REDDING, EG 0,0 Marc VDS – 1’22.170 +0.549
9. Yonny HERNANDEZ, Octo Pramac Racing – 1’22.196 +0.575
10. Andrea DOVIZIOSO, Ducati Team – 1’22.340 +0.719
11. Hector BARBERA, Avintia Racing – 1’22.413 +0.792
12. Cal CRUTCHLOW, CWM LCR Honda – 1’22.425 +0.804
13. Pol ESPARGARO, Monster Yamaha Tech 3 – 1’22.436 +0.815
14. Maverick VIÑALES, Team SUZUKI ECSTAR – 1’22.507 +0.886
