Team Suzuki Press Office – August 10.
Alex Rins: 7th – 1:23.681
• Alex Rins still working on perfect set-up as he goes 3rd row.
• Team hoping for a strong result on Austria’s technical track.
Day 2 at the Red Bull Ring in Spielberg saw incredibly tight lap times among the MotoGP riders, especially in the morning’s FP3 session. Alex Rins used the first half of this session to work on set-up before he pushed hard to secure direct passage for the afternoon’s vital Q2.
Rins confirmed his decent pace during FP4 as he aimed to prepare for qualifying, keeping himself constantly within the Top 10 and hovering around the Top 5.
With the fast and sweeping lines of the Austrian track making for a short lap, Q2 tactics varied as riders aimed to fit in as many laps as possible in the15-minute session. Rins opted for two runs, both with the soft-soft tyre combination, and he placed himself on the 2nd row on the penultimate lap. However, he was bumped down one place to 7th as the chequered flag flew. He is just +0.654 from the top spot and proved to be 2nd quickest through the third sector of the track.
Davide Brivio – Team Manager:
“Today we recovered well, and Alex did a good job. It wasn’t easy to get into the Top 10 in FP3, but he managed it. We’ll start from 7th tomorrow, which isn’t bad. We still need to make a few adjustments to the settings in order to maximise our performance, and also the choice of the tyres will be crucial, but we hope for a good result tomorrow. It will be an interesting race, and we know Alex will try to stay in the front group, as always.”
Alex Rins:
“I’m happy with my result in qualifying, we always suffer a little bit at this track. Yesterday I struggled to do a fast lap time, but also I preferred to focus on settings. During qualifying I set some really good lap times, I improved by almost half a second on my previous best. I’m 7th tomorrow and I think I can do a good race from that spot.”
GP of Austria – Qualifying Classification:
1. Marc MARQUEZ Repsol Honda Team 1’23.027
2. Fabio QUARTARARO Petronas Yamaha SRT 1’23.461 0.434 / 0.434
3. Andrea DOVIZIOSO Ducati Team 1’23.515 0.488 / 0.054
4. Maverick VIÑALES Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP 1’23.523 0.496 / 0.008
5. Francesco BAGNAIA Pramac Racing 1’23.652 0.625 / 0.129
6. Takaaki NAKAGAMI LCR Honda IDEMITSU 1’23.669 0.642 / 0.017
7. Alex RINS Team SUZUKI ECSTAR 1’23.681 0.654 / 0.012
8. Jack MILLER Pramac Racing 1’23.688 0.661 / 0.007
9. Cal CRUTCHLOW LCR Honda CASTROL 1’23.754 0.727 / 0.066
10. Valentino ROSSI Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP 1’23.817 0.790 / 0.063
11. Pol ESPARGARO Red Bull KTM Factory Racing 1’23.866 0.839 / 0.049
12. Danilo PETRUCCI Ducati Team 1’23.964 0.937 / 0.098
13. Miguel OLIVEIRA Red Bull KTM Tech 3 1’24.130 Q1
14. Franco MORBIDELLI Petronas Yamaha SRT 1’24.270 Q1
15. Tito RABAT Reale Avintia Racing Ducati 1’24.389. Q1
16. Johann ZARCO Red Bull KTM Factory Racing 1’24.392 Q1
17. Karel ABRAHAM Reale Avintia Racing 1’24.423. Q1
18. Andrea IANNONE Aprilia Racing Team Gresini 1’24.526. Q1
19. Aleix ESPARGARO Aprilia Racing Team Gresini 1’24.749. Q1
20. Hafizh SYAHRIN Red Bull KTM Tech 3 1’24.759 Q1
21. Stefan BRADL Repsol Honda Team 1’25.020 Q1
