Team Suzuki Press Office – September 9.

Alex Rins: 20th – 1’34.138 (Q1)
Andrea Iannone: 21st – 1’34.148 (Q1)

Qualifying day at the San Marino GP and the Rimini Riviera saw Alex Rins and Andrea Iannone struggling to get the right feel with their bikes in Q1, the Spaniard ending in 20th place (1’34.138) and the Italian in 21st (1’34.148).

In the morning session, Rins was able to improve from yesterday´s lap time, but not enough to get better than 18th position. His struggle with more efficient riding continued in the Q1, with low confidence with the front end.

More struggles for Andrea Iannone: he couldn’t improve his time in FP3, costing him his chance to get direct access in Q2. The team delivered a new chassis, in order to be more rigid, which proved to be effective for some points but not a complete solution. In Q1 his bad feeling with the front end prevented him from setting a better time, and ended in 21st place.

Davide Brivio – Team Manager
“Unfortunately today has been very tough for us. This track is not really the best for us and we are facing difficulty in adaptation. Alex made good progress. He improved his skills, but still can’t be as effective as he’d like. With Andrea we tried today to anticipate some work that was scheduled for the test, introducing a new chassis, aimed to improve the rigidity. He gave us important feedback that we will now analyse, but at the end of the day his performance was not as we would have hoped. Alex and Andrea will start from 20th and 21st position, which means they will need to recover. We will try to find some improvements tonight and hopefully get them two configurations that could make them feel more confident.”

Alex Rins
“This weekend it is difficult to make progress. We are working hard with the team, as always, only this time we are finding it harder to find what would help us to improve in the rankings. Tomorrow we have the warm up to continue testing and afterwards the race, although the forecast says it may be wet.”

Andrea Iannone
“Honestly I don’t know what’s happening. We are struggling a lot. I can’t ride as I would like to or be as fast as I normally am. I’ve never been so slow. This year I can’t find a way. We are always almost there, but not resulting in the success we expect. I will speak again with engineers and technicians to see how we could improve. The problem is that we don’t have one single major issue, but we have many small issues. We tried a new chassis, but it didn’t make a major improvement. It’s better, but not as much as we’d like. Let’s continue working. That’s what we can do.”

GP of San Marino – Qualifying classification:
1. Maverick VIÑALES, Movistar Yamaha MotoGP – 1’32.439
2. Andrea DOVIZIOSO, Ducati Team – 1’32.601 +0.162
3. Marc MARQUEZ, Repsol Honda Team – 1’32.636 +0.197
4. Cal CRUTCHLOW, LCR Hondav – 1’32.768 +0.329
5. Jorge LORENZO, Ducati Team – 1’32.792 +0.353
6. Johann ZARCO, Monster Yamaha Tech 3 – 1’32.885 +0.446
7. Dani PEDROSA, Repsol Honda Team – 1’32.992 +0.553
8. Danilo PETRUCCI, OCTO Pramac Racing – 1’32.997 +0.558
9. Aleix ESPARGARO, Aprilia Racing Team Gresini – 1’33.149 +0.710
10. Alvaro BAUTISTA, Pull&Bear Aspar Team – 1’33.417 +0.978
11. Michele PIRRO, Ducati Team – 1’33.491 +1.052
12. Karel ABRAHAM, Pull&Bear Aspar Team – 1’34.374 +1.935
13. Hector BARBERA, Reale Avintia Racing – 1’33.920 (Q1)
14. Jack MILLER, EG 0,0 Marc VDS – 1’33.933 (Q1)
15. Loris BAZ, Reale Avintia Racing – 1’33.946 (Q1)
16. Jonas FOLGER, Monster Yamaha Tech 3 – 1’33.987 (Q1)
17. Pol ESPARGARO, Red Bull KTM Factory Racing – 1’34.080 (Q1)
18. Tito RABAT, EG 0,0 Marc VDS – 1’34.095 (Q1)
19. Scott REDDING, OCTO Pramac Racing – 1’34.132 (Q1)
20. Alex RINS, Team SUZUKI ECSTAR – 1’34.138 (Q1)
21. Andrea IANNONE, Team SUZUKI ECSTAR – 1’34.148 (Q1)
22. Bradley SMITH, Red Bull KTM Factory Racing – 1’34.507 (Q1)
23. Sam LOWES, Aprilia Racing Team Gresini – 1’35.659 (Q1)