Team Suzuki Press Office – August 6.
Alex Rins: 9th – 1:55.986 (+ 0.777)
Andrea Iannone: 11th – 1:56.111 (+ 0.902)
Sylvain Guintoli: 19th – 1:57.843 (+ 2.634)
• Unfortunate crash for Andrea Iannone.
• Rins and Guintoli make useful progress.
• Work focused on new electronics and improved chassis.
After a tricky Czech Grand Prix which saw temperatures soar, Team SUZUKI ECSTAR’s three riders were back out on track on Monday morning at the official MotoGP test.
The day was cut short for Andrea Iannone, however, as the Italian suffered a crash after running wide at Turn 10 and going down in the gravel trap. An initial X-Ray at the Clinica Mobile found nothing broken, but Andrea continued to feel a lot of pain and it was decided to put an end to his test. Prior to the crash he was able to put in 26 laps with a best time of 1:56.111.
Meanwhile, Alex Rins was able to do some comparison runs between different chassis configurations. Including a chassis with a partially new specification that ahs already been used by Guintoli in the Czech GP weekend. The Spaniard also worked on electronics and trialled a new front tyre brought by Michelin for the use of all riders.
Test Rider Sylvain Guintoli, who rode the GP of Brno with two broken ribs, took to the track for a total of 37 laps and was able to gain useful information. He worked in many of the same areas as Alex Rins and felt the test had been a positive one.
Davide Brivio – Team Manager
“It’s been a good opportunity to test today, despite the tight schedule between the two races. So I have to say thanks very much to the riders and the team for all the effort they’ve put in. With Alex we found some good information overall, especially on the electronics settings – which we are always trying to improve. Unfortunately Andrea had a crash and we decided to finish his test in order to give him more time to relax and recover for next weekend. Anyway, it’s been good to test and we’ll try to use this information as much as possible next weekend.”
Andrea Iannone
“I wasn’t able to test much, because this morning I crashed and I have a lot of pain in my left shoulder. I’ve had problems with this shoulder in the past and we decided it’s better not to risk further damage before the Austrian GP. This morning, before the crash, my feeling was good and positive. We knew we needed to work on consistency, and we began with that, but in the end it wasn’t possible to continue.”
Alex Rins
“Today we tried a lot of things, firstly in the electronics and also we did a comparison between the actual carbon chassis and an improved one, that was brought here by Sylvain. With the electronics I feel we have done some improvements, and we’ll keep working to understand the bike better.”
Sylvain Guintoli
“We’ve completed a useful test and tried some different items, it’s been good. The weekend here went very well, I could’ve done without the injury as it’s been really painful, but we completed everything and got a lot of information. We confirmed some parts on the chassis which we’d already tried in Motegi, and we worked on many different things including electronics strategies. We’re working hard but of course races are the best tests for the data. We’re working in the short, medium, and long term – everything has a value either for now or for the future.”
BRNO TEST – Classification:
1. MARQUEZ, Marc Repsol Honda Team 1:55.209
2. ZARCO, Johann Monster Yamaha Tech 3 1:55.342 0.133 / 0.133
3. PEDROSA, Dani Repsol Honda Team 1:55.399 0.190 / 0.057
4. DOVIZIOSO, Andrea Ducati Team 1:55.517 0.308 / 0.118
5. LORENZO, Jorge Ducati Team 1:55.609 0.400 / 0.092
6. CRUTCHLOW, Cal LCR Honda CASTROL 1:55.771 0.562 / 0.162
7. ROSSI, Valentino Movistar Yamaha MotoGP 1:55.918 0.709 / 0.147
8. PETRUCCI, Danilo Alma Pramac Racing 1:55.939 0.730 / 0.021
9. RINS, Alex Team SUZUKI ECSTAR 1:55.986 0.777 / 0.047
10. SYAHRIN, Hafizh Monster Yamaha Tech 3 1:56.032 0.823 / 0.046
11. IANNONE, Andrea Team SUZUKI ECSTAR 1:56.111 0.902 / 0.079
12. ESPARGARO, Aleix Aprilia Racing Team Gresini 1:56.366 1.157 / 0.255
13. SMITH, Bradley Red Bull KTM Factory Racing 1:56.566 1.357 / 0.200
14. NAKAGAMI, Takaaki LCR Honda IDEMITSU 1:56.622 1.413 / 0.056
15. MORBIDELLI, Franco EG 0,0 Marc VDS 1:56.697 1.488 / 0.075
16. REDDING, Scott Aprilia Racing Team Gresini 1:56.855 1.646 / 0.158
17. MILLER, Jack Alma Pramac Racing 1:56.885 1.676 / 0.030
18. LUTHI, Thomas EG 0,0 Marc VDS 1:57.034 1.825 / 0.149
19. GUINTOLI, Sylvain Team SUZUKI ECSTAR 1:57.843 2.634 / 0.809
20. AOYAMA, Hiroshi HRC Honda Team 1:59.334 4.125 / 1.491
