Team Suzuki Press Office – Aug 25.

Andrea Iannone: 11th – 2’01.974 +1.077
Alex Rins: 12th – 2’02.072 +1.175

The friendly circuit at Silverstone welcomed the two Team SUZUKI ECSTAR riders with a positive day. Both Andrea Iannone and Alex Rins were very competitive throughout the first day of practice. The Italian is currently in 11th place, with only 0.041s between him and the top ten, while the young Spaniard follows closely in 12th place.

The morning session started with both riders testing the base setup which was also used in Austria. From there they were able to improve the configuration little by little. This also led to a drop in the times. Although in the morning they could not improve much, by the afternoon the work was paying off and they were able to get close to the top 10 that would afford them direct access to Q2.

Davide Brivio – Team Manager
“It’s a positive day for us, with both riders very close to the Q2 in 11th and 12th place. We did a good job. With Andrea, we still have some things to improve and we can work on these to try to put him in the position to be faster, so that´s where our focus will be. Alex had positive sessions; he improved a lot and I believe he is also enjoying the track. He has a good pace with the hard tyres, but the time attack was also positive, very close to direct access to Q2. We look forward with positivity.”

Andrea Iannone
“I’m pretty happy but not completely satisfied. We’re working hard and trying to improve. We don’t have any major issues that we have to face, just small things that can be fixed in order to be more effective. So far we haven’t worked much on the settings. We just started from the base settings we had in Austria, which was the evolution after the Brno test. We needed to double check, and they turned out to be positive. Tomorrow we will try to make bigger modifications on the machine to see how it reacts, and to see if we can improve the things that are missing. We also tried many tyres. So far the hard and the medium ones didn’t completely satisfy me but with the soft one the feeling is better, although we need to better understand how it might behave throughout the duration of the race.”

Alex Rins
“I’m really enjoying riding the Suzuki GSX-RR on this track. The layout is exciting and so far my feelings on the bike are positive. I think this is one of the best Friday’s of the season. I´m feeling good and I think we are moving towards the right direction. We have some ideas for improving tomorrow, so I can’t wait to go out on the track again and try to improve. “

GP of Great Britain – Classification after Day 1:
1. Cal CRUTCHLOW, LCR Honda – 2’00.897
2. Valentino ROSSI, Movistar Yamaha MotoGP – 2’01.138 +0.241
3. Maverick VIÑALES, Movistar Yamaha MotoGP – 2’01.168 +0.271
4. Aleix ESPARGARO, Aprilia Racing Team Gresini – 2’01.592 +0.695
5. Marc MARQUEZ, Repsol Honda Team – 2’01.611 +0.714
6. Jorge LORENZO, Ducati Team – 2’01.655 +0.758
7. Pol ESPARGARO, Red Bull KTM Factory Racing – 2’01.832 +0.935
8. Johann ZARCO, Monster Yamaha Tech 3 – 2’01.885 +0.988
9. Andrea DOVIZIOSO, Ducati Team – 2’01.893 +0.996
10. Scott REDDING, OCTO Pramac Racing – 2’01.933 +1.036
11. Andrea IANNONE, Team SUZUKI ECSTAR – 2’01.974 +1.077
12. Alex RINS, Team SUZUKI ECSTAR – 2’02.072 +1.175
13. Alvaro BAUTISTA, Pull&Bear Aspar Team – 2’02.097 +1.200
14. Karel ABRAHAM, Pull&Bear Aspar Team – 2’02.098 +1.201
15. Loris BAZ, Reale Avintia Racing – 2’02.202 +1.305
16. Danilo PETRUCCI, OCTO Pramac Racing – 2’02.250 +1.353
17. Dani PEDROSA, Repsol Honda Team – 2’02.408 +1.511
18. Jack MILLER, EG 0,0 Marc VDS – 2’02.507 +1.610
19. Jonas FOLGER, Monster Yamaha Tech 3 – 2’02.580 +1.683
20. Hector BARBERA, Reale Avintia Racing – 2’02.735 +1.838
21. Tito RABAT, EG 0,0 Marc VDS – 2’02.860 +1.963
22. Sam LOWES, Aprilia Racing Team Gresini – 2’03.475 +2.578
23. Bradley SMITH, Red Bull KTM Factory Racing – 2’04.429 +3.532