Team Suzuki Press Office – August 26. Team SUZUKI ECSTAR is heading to Silverstone for the 12th round of the 2015 MotoGP series and the Grand Prix of Great Britain this weekend.
The last race in the Czech Republic left a bitter-sweet sensation for the final result as Aleix Espargaro finished in ninth and Maverick Viñales crashed out, but it gave the team positive feedback about the MotoGP™ project’s overall development.
In the UK, Espargaro will continue to seek the best feeling he can with his GSX-RR; a feeling which has seemed to be elusive since the summer break.
Thankfully, he did have a good connection with the machine in the first half of the season and there were some positives to come from Brno. His mood and trust in the project is still positive, which along with his enthusiasm will help him to find the confidence he needs with the bike.
At the same time the younger Viñales is eager to recover his confidence after the crash he had in the Czech Republic. The fall interrupted a positive line of results; he has scored points in all the first 10 races, which is a record for a rookie.
The crash he suffered didn’t affect his mood, as he’s aware of the steady progress he’s made since the beginning of the season. He can also be proud of a good relationship with the circuit: in fact he won in 2013 (Moto3™) and finished on the podium last year in the Moto2™ race
With more than 60 years of history, Silverstone has become one of the most prestigious venues dedicated to motorsport. Completely revamped in recent years, a multi-million pound investment saw the completion in 2010 of a first phase of works to greatly improve the venue, making it one of the fastest tracks on the MotoGP calendar and earning high praise from the World Championship riders who enjoyed the new layout.
The track is 5.9 km (3.67 miles) in length with a good balance between left and right hand corners: 8 left and 10 right-handers. Sunday’s race will be disputed over a total of 20 laps, for a total distance of 118.0 km – 73.4 miles.
Aleix Espargaro:
“The last races have been pretty tough for me, I struggled to find the same confidence that I had in the first half of the season and we still lack the finalisation of a proper set-up. The GSX-RR’s base is very solid, I still feel it’s a very good project, but we need to be more effective in how we prepare for both qualifying and the race. In Brno things went better than Indianapolis and we have found some direction that now we need to test and validate. Maybe the main variable in Silverstone will be the weather, we haven’t raced in the rain and therefore we don’t have any experience yet. At the same time we already have many aspects to focus on therefore I’m very eager to be riding again and proceed with the development work we have planned to do.”
Maverick Viñales:
“Unfortunately in Brno I crashed out, which is bad for the final result but to be honest I’m more focused to the development and growth process that we are pursuing overall. My last race weekends after the summer break gave me much more confidence in terms of approach to the race and in fact in Czech Republic I was lapping with a very good pace before crashing. This means that my confidence with the bike is growing race-after-race and this gives us very positive feelings. I have very good memories from Silverstone and I am confident that the way we are working will give us with even more positive results.”
