Team Suzuki Press Office – November 10.
Andrea Iannone: P4 – 1’31.045 +0.405
Alex Rins: P16 – 1’31.876 +1.236
The first day in Valencia is shaping up well for Andrea Iannone, who led this morning’s FP1 and is currently 4th in the combined classification of the day. Alex Rins improved throughout the day, cutting nearly one second in the afternoon from the FP1, to clock 1’31.876. This gives him the provisional 16th place in the combined classification.
The morning went well for Iannone from the very beginning. He had good feeling with the bike and started to lap with consistency as the session progressed, improving his performance lap after lap. With the setup giving him more confidence, he was able to conclude the session with a time of 1’31.045, which set him in first place. In the afternoon´s FP2 the work continued on worn tyres covering more than the race distance in order to test the consistency of the pace. Only at the end of the session did Iannone leave with soft new tyres to try the time attack, but a slide at corner 10 (right one) of the exit lap brought an early end to his attempt to improve. Luckily the crash did have any further negative repercussions for Iannone.
Despite some initial troubles at the beginning of FP1, Rins began to feel better laps after laps. His 1’32.797 was worth 20th place in the classification, but in the afternoon things went better. With a different setup configuration he was more efficient, cutting nearly one second off the lap time (1’31.876 his best in FP2), which also meant he reduced his gap from the provisional leader from 1.752s to 1.236s.
Davide Brivio – Team Manager
“It was a shame, the slide of Andrea at the end of the afternoon, because until that moment our day was very positive. In fact, the time he scored this morning is still worth 4th place in the combined classification, even though he could not go for a proper time attack yet. He has a good pace and feeling. He has remained among the fastest in both sessions. We still can improve something in the configuration so I hope tomorrow he will be able to further improve. Also Alex had a positive day, the current position in classification is a little misleading since today we did very intense work with him and he is just missing the time attack. We were able to finalize many little things for him, and tomorrow we will try to put them all together to see a marked improvement.”
Andrea Iannone
“I’m happy for this morning because we were fast and I had good feeling with the bike. In the afternoon we continued to work with used tyres to settle the pace configuration. We were able to lap an important distance, longer than the race distance, and the performance is good. At the end we switched to new soft tyres and unfortunately I took a slide, losing the front end in a right-hand corner. Here in Valencia the right-hand corners are always a crucial matter. Maybe the tyre was not at the right temperature so I lost it. We will figure out what happened, although the most important thing is that I didn’t get hurt and that overall the day has given us positive results.”
Alex Rins
“Today, in the morning, things went quite well. Even if we couldn’t complete a very fast lap, our race pace is not so bad. Tomorrow we will look for a best lap to enter directly in Q2. We have to try more the winglets for tomorrow because today we hardly ever used them. We have margin to improve and so many details to refine like reducing the wheelie or braking stability.”
GP of Valencia – Combined practice times of Day 1:
1. Jorge LORENZO, Ducati Team – 1’30.640
2. Dani PEDROSA, Repsol Honda Team – 1’30.762 +0.122
3. Andrea DOVIZIOSO, Ducati Team – 1’30.949 +0.309
4. Andrea IANNONE, Team SUZUKI ECSTAR – 1’31.045 +0.405
5. Johann ZARCO, Monster Yamaha Tech 3 – 1’31.054 +0.414
6. Marc MARQUEZ, Repsol Honda Team – 1’31.243 +0.603
7. Jack MILLER, EG 0,0 Marc VDS – 1’31.357 +0.717
8. Cal CRUTCHLOW, LCR Honda – 1’31.383 +0.743
9. Michele PIRRO, Ducati Team – 1’31.413 +0.773
10. Pol ESPARGARO, Red Bull KTM Factory Racing – 1’31.438 +0.798
11. Valentino ROSSI, Movistar Yamaha MotoGP – 1’31.488 +0.848
12. Maverick VIÑALES, Movistar Yamaha MotoGP – 1’31.624 +0.984
13. Aleix ESPARGARO, Aprilia Racing Team Gresini – 1’31.698 +1.058
14. Scott REDDING, OCTO Pramac Racing – 1’31.733 +1.093
15. Karel ABRAHAM, Pull&Bear Aspar Team – 1’31.858 +1.218
16. Alex RINS, Team SUZUKI ECSTAR – 1’31.876 +1.236
17. Mika KALLIO, Red Bull KTM Factory Racing – 1’31.879 +1.239
18. Hector BARBERA, Reale Avintia Racing – 1’31.926 +1.286
19. Tito RABAT, EG 0,0 Marc VDS – 1’31.958 +1.318
20. Danilo PETRUCCI, OCTO Pramac Racing – 1’32.029 +1.389
21. Alvaro BAUTISTA, Pull&Bear Aspar Team – 1’32.076 +1.436
22. Loris BAZ, Reale Avintia Racing – 1’32.151 +1.511
23. Bradley SMITH, Red Bull KTM Factory Racing – 1’32.457 +1.817
24. Sam LOWES, Aprilia Racing Team Gresini – 1’32.587 1.947
25. Michael VAN DER MARK, Monster Yamaha Tech 3 – 1’33.101 +2.461
