Team Suzuki Press Office – September 25.
After a hard first session this morning for both Team SUZUKI ECSTAR riders Aleix Espargaro and Maverick Viñales, the sunshine came out to brighten-up their day in the afternoon, with marked improvements in their performances.
Making the most progress was Espargaro who cut nearly 1.8-seconds from FP1 to FP2. This was a great improvement that paid back the huge job done by the Spaniard and his crew, overcoming an uncertain performance of the tyre in the colder morning and finding a steady confidence in the last 45-minutes of the day. This puts him in seventh place in the classification, with a best lap in 1’48.524.
It was a case of more struggles for the fellow Spaniard Viñales, who spent both the sessions trying to find a better feeling, but lacking confidence in the rear-end of his GSX-RR. This prevented him performing at his usual pace and leaving him in 16th position with a best lap of 1’49.680.
Today’s conditions changed greatly from the morning to the afternoon and demanding the riders and crews to quickly re-adapt the machine to the new ground and air temperatures. These conditions were very different from the ones in the tests and this complicated the team’s work.
Davide Brivio – Team Manager:
“It has been a positive day for Aleix, because despite the difficulties that we found in the morning we found a proper way to improve his machine and allow him to be more comfortable. In the early session he couldn’t be as effective as he wanted, but finally we found what one of the main problems was and when we fixed it he was very effective over a single lap. Of course this means that we lost some time, but it is also experience for us. Maverick instead is struggling with the confidence with his bike’s rear-end. We know we can do a lot better with him and now we need to investigate further how to deliver a more effective machine. Tomorrow’s sessions will be crucial, we need to find a way to make him more comfortable on the bike and attempt to get into higher places in the classification.”
Aleix Espargaro:
“It’s been a positive day in my opinion because we managed to improve a situation that seemed to be difficult. This morning I didn’t have a good feeling with the rear tyre, but talking with my crew we had the intuition that it wasn’t only a problem of set-up and we focused more on building confidence with the track and to get some other information. In fact in the afternoon, with new tyre, I could improve a lot my lap time, thus confirming that the technical direction was good. I’m happy also because we are not so far from the top, for sure having tested here helped us to have some points of reference even if the conditions are very different and we still have many parameters to set up. Electronics and set-up still have room for improvements and I’m confident that tomorrow we will make another step forward.”
Maverick Viñales:
“I have a strange feeling about today because my performance isn’t as good as it normally is and I have no clue yet on what could be wrong. We did test here so we have some reference and the machine is pretty-much the same we are used to, as well as the approach we took with the work, but I cannot feel confident with the machine. I have a lot of sliding from the rear of the bike and it looks like the GSX-RR has changed its behaviour even if we didn’t make major changes. For sure the machine and my own potential is much higher, we only need to keep calm, revise the data of these two early sessions and find a direction to find back our usual good performance.”
GP of Aragon – Qualifying after FP2:
1. Jorge LORENZO, Movistar Yamaha MotoGP – 1’47.517
2. Valentino ROSSI, Movistar Yamaha MotoGP – 1’48.200 +0.683
3. Bradley SMITH, Monster Yamaha Tech 3 – 1’48.318 +0.801
4. Dani PEDROSA, Repsol Honda Team – 1’48.358 +0.841
5. Marc MARQUEZ, Repsol Honda Team – 1’48.401 +0.884
6. Pol ESPARGARO, Monster Yamaha Tech 3 – 1’48.445 +0.928
7. Aleix ESPARGARO, Team SUZUKI ECSTAR – 1’48.524 +1.007
8. Andrea DOVIZIOSO, Ducati Team – 1’48.575 +1.058
9. Andrea IANNONE, Ducati Team – 1’48.615 +1.098
10. Danilo PETRUCCI, Octo Pramac Racing – 1’48.829 +1.312
11. Yonny HERNANDEZ, Octo Pramac Racing – 1’48.955 +1.438
12. Scott REDDING, EG 0,0 Marc VDS – 1’49.007 +1.490
13. Cal CRUTCHLOW, LCR Honda – 1’49.064 +1.547
14. Hector BARBERA, Avintia Racing – 1’49.225 +1.708
15. Alvaro BAUTISTA, Aprilia Racing Team Gresini – 1’49.576 +2.059
16. Maverick VIÑALES, Team SUZUKI ECSTAR – 1’49.680 +2.163
