Team Suzuki Press Office – May 7.
Andrea Iannone: DNF
Takuya Tsuda: 17th / +1’27.450
The Spanish GP leaves Team SUZUKI ECSTAR with a bitter taste in its mouth, as the encouraging improvement seen yesterday in qualifying didn’t provide the expected results on race day. Andrea Iannone crashed out with 18 laps to go, thereby losing the chance to score points for the championship. Takuya Tsuda enjoyed his first race in MotoGP, reaching the finish line and gathering important feedback for the engineers.
With a positive start when the red lights went off, Iannone overtook some riders and went into 3rd place at the first corner. His pace was good for the early laps, but then had to let up on the pace and started losing positions, until when in the 7th lap when he lost control of his GSX-RR at corner 11 and crashed out of the race.
Test rider Takuya Tsuda managed to finish his very first race in MotoGP. It has been a good opportunity for him to debut the GSX-RR in a race after doing so much work to develop it, and also advantageous for the engineers and R&D team to get important feedback.
Ken Kawauchi – Technical Manager
“This weekend has been a tough one for us. We applied some modifications to the setup that little by little proved to be effective. Indeed, in qualifying Andrea was more efficient with the modifications, but then unfortunately the different race conditions proved to be more difficult, and the improvements didn’t work as well as we expected. Tsuda had his very first race in MotoGP after many years of working behind the scenes to develop the GSX-RR, so it wasn’t easy for him, but he managed to finish the race and collect a lot of useful data to send back to Japan. Now we will stay in Jerez for two days of testing. We have a few ideas to verify, and we’ll try to improve our situation.”
Davide Brivio – Team Manager
“With Andrea yesterday, we did a good job in qualifying, and we were confident of having a good race because he was able to get that valuable second row position. The first laps did not go not so badly, but then his pace got worse and in the end he crashed. He was not pushing hard, so we should be able to figure out what happened. Unfortunately Alex couldn’t race here, and we hope that he returns soon. Now we have two test days and we will try to prepare ourselves to arrive in the best possible manner to Le Mans. Tomorrow we will also start working with Sylvain Guintoli who will replace Alex in the next races.”
Andrea Iannone
“Unfortunately we didn’t finish the race, but I’m very happy about the first four laps of the race. I am disappointed and sad about the fall because we always want to take home the best result possible and today we could not. I wasn´t able to finish the race and that is very negative. I started well, I made good laps but when the tyres started to slide in either the front or the rear the situation became difficult to manage. Now we have two days of testing and I hope we can work to get to Le Mans in better form. I think today the temperature changed a lot, and this made the track very slippery and tricky for all the riders.”
Takuya Tsuda
“As the track conditions changed in every session, it was difficult for me to adapt and change my riding style throughout the weekend. The conditions today at the race were worse than ever, as the track temperature kept rising so much. It was a pity since I felt like I was riding a completely different bike, and I couldn’t show what I learned during the weekend. I thought I could go faster and follow the group in front of me, but I felt there was a considerable risk of crashing. I couldn’t push harder, but the positive thing is that I’ve learned so many things from the race which I’ve never had the chance to experience. I also believe this experience will give more information for the development of the bike in the near future, starting from tomorrow’s test.”
GP of España – Race classification:
1. Dani PEDROSA, Repsol Honda Team – 45’26.827
2. Marc MARQUEZ, Repsol Honda Team – +6.136
3. Jorge LORENZO, Ducati Team – +14.767
4. Johann ZARCO, Monster Yamaha Tech 3 – +17.601
5. Andrea DOVIZIOSO, Ducati Team – +22.913
6. Maverick VIÑALES, Movistar Yamaha MotoGP – +24.556
7. Danilo PETRUCCI, OCTO Pramac Racing – +24.959
8. Jonas FOLGER, Monster Yamaha Tech 3 – +27.721
9. Aleix ESPARGARO, Aprilia Racing Team Gresini – +31.233
10. Valentino ROSSI, Movistar Yamaha MotoGP – +38.682
11. Scott REDDING, OCTO Pramac Racing – +40.979
12 Hector BARBERA, Reale Avintia Racing – +43.199
13. Loris BAZ, Reale Avintia Racing – +43.211
14 Bradley SMITH, Red Bull KTM Factory Racing – +47.964
15. Karel ABRAHAM, Pull&Bear Aspar Team – +51.279
16. Sam LOWES, Aprilia Racing Team Gresini – +1’08.885
17. Takuya TSUDA, Team SUZUKI ECSTAR – +1’27.450
Not Classified
Andrea IANNONE, Team SUZUKI ECSTAR – +18 Laps
Tito RABAT, EG 0,0 Marc VDS – +18 Laps
Cal CRUTCHLOW, LCR Honda – +22 Laps
Jack MILLER, EG 0,0 Marc VDS – +22 Laps
Alvaro BAUTISTA, Pull&Bear Aspar Team – +22 Laps
Pol ESPARGARO, Red Bull KTM Factory Racing – +22 Laps
Riders World Championship Classification
1. Valentino ROSSI, Yamaha – 62
2. Maverick VIÑALES, Yamaha – 60
3. Marc MARQUEZ, Honda – 58
4 Dani PEDROSA, Honda – 52
5. Andrea DOVIZIOSO, Ducati – 41
6. Johann ZARCO, Yamaha – 35
7. Cal CRUTCHLOW, Honda – 29
8. Jonas FOLGER, Yamaha – 29
9. Jorge LORENZO, Ducati – 28
10. Danilo PETRUCCI, Ducati – 26
11 Scott REDDING, Ducati – 26
12. Jack MILLER, Honda – 21
13. Aleix ESPARGARO, Aprilia – 17
14. Alvaro BAUTISTA, Ducati – 14
15. Loris BAZ, Ducati – 12
16. Hector BARBERA, Ducati – 12
17. Andrea IANNONE, Suzuki – 9
18. Karel ABRAHAM, Ducati – 9
19. Tito RABAT, Honda – 8
20. Alex RINS, Suzuki – 7
21. Bradley SMITH, KTM – 3
22. Pol ESPARGARO, KTM – 2
23. Sam LOWES, Aprilia
24. Takuya TSUDA, Suzuki
