Team Suzuki Press Office – September 2.
Maverick Viñales – 2nd.
Aleix Espargaró – 8th.
Team SUZUKI ECSTAR’s Maverick Viñales impressed in the opening Free Practice sessions today at the Octo British GP in the UK as team-mate Aleix Espargaró recorded eighth position.
With rain clouds looming over the Silverstone Circuit, and air temperatures of 16 degrees, Viñales topped the timesheets in FP1 with a time of 2’02.483 with Espargaró 12th on 2’04.443. But in the afternoon session, and a fraction warmer at 19 degrees, Viñales’ recorded a 2’01.7212-lap which gave him second position overall. Espargaró also improved by more-than two seconds to secure eighth position with a time of 2’02.364.
Davide Brivio – Team Manager:
“Today Maverick had a positive day both in the morning and in the afternoon, where he felt confident with the bike and his lap times were always amongst the fastest, not only on a single lap, but also on pace. We’re also happy for Aleix because he improved a lot in the afternoon since the morning and he managed to get much closer to the top, although he seems to have some room for improvements. We have developed a good base set-up for the dry conditions, we’ll have to wait and see how the weather will develop, although I think we could also exploit the positive work we’ve done today in case of wet conditions.”
Maverick Viñales:
“I have a good feeling and confidence after this first day, we still can work on lines because this circuit is pretty long to learn and so there is room for improvement. We did a positive job today both with hard and soft tyres; this morning with the hard I was already competitive and I improved with the soft. Although I have already covered the race distance today with one set, we still have to further investigate which will be the best option for the time attack and for the race. I felt good also with used tyres and the set-up has improved; the main focus will be to refine my riding style.”
Aleix Espargaró:
“I have mixed feelings because this morning my feeling was not good with the bike, it moved a lot and also the grip was lacking, but also positive because in the afternoon we improved a lot. During the lunch break my crew changed some settings and they proved to be effective, I felt much more confident in the afternoon and the time is a first positive outcome. We have clearer ideas on the direction to be taken to improve further and this leaves me positive for tomorrow. Here the track is really bumpy, so we have to find a good compromise, but at the same time I feel we are exploiting the chassis positives in fast corners and this is positive.”
OCTO BRITISH GRAND PRIX FP2 RESULT:
1 Andrea IANNONE – Ducati Team – 2’01.421
2 Maverick VIÑALES – Team SUZUKI ECSTAR – 2’01.721 + 0.300
3 Cal CRUTCHLOW – LCR Honda – 2’01.917 + 0.496
4 Jorge LORENZO – Movistar Yamaha MotoGP – 2’02.032 + 0.611
5 Marc MARQUEZ – Repsol Honda Team – 2’02.240 + 0.819
6 Valentino ROSSI – Movistar Yamaha MotoGP – 2’02.262 + 0.841
7 Andrea DOVIZIOSO – Ducati Team – 2’02.267 + 0.846
8 Aleix ESPARGARO – Team SUZUKI ECSTAR – 2’02.364 + 0.943
9 Dani PEDROSA – Repsol Honda Team – 2’02.372 + 0.951
10 Scott REDDING – OCTO Pramac Yakhnich – 2’02.533 + 1.112
