Team Suzuki Press Office – August 13.
Austrian GP Day 1:
Joan Mir: 2nd – 1’23.625 (+ 0.798)
Alex Rins: 3rd – 1’23.730 (+ 0.903)
Team Suzuki Ecstar were back on track for the second in a double header at the Red Bull Ring. Following a successful Styrian GP last weekend, which saw Joan Mir second and Alex Rins seventh, the team and riders were keen to hit the Spielberg circuit once again.
Friday morning’s FP1 brought bright skies, and both Mir and Rins took full advantage of these conditions to not only fine-tune settings and iron out issues faced last weekend, but also to get some fast laps under their belts. Looking confident and quick on their GSX-RRs, they spent the majority of the session at the top of the timesheets, closing in second and third respectively.
Just moments ahead of the start of FP2, the skies opened and a tremendous storm of hail, rain, thunder and lightning hit the local area. With the track soaked the riders made a tentative start to the session, opting for full wet tyres and remaining on them throughout. Both Rins and Mir collected some useful information should Saturday or Sunday also bring rain. They remain well inside the Top 10 on combined times ahead of tomorrow; second and third.
Joan Mir:
“We had a few problems with braking in both sessions, in the morning I couldn’t get a very good lap time, especially on time attack, but I got up there after using the soft tyres. So I actually still have a lot of margin to improve, we need to make a few adjustments to make everything more comfortable. This weekend every rider will be faster, so it will be more of a challenge on Sunday, but we’ll try to give our all and if we can fix the little things I feel pretty confident.”
Alex Rins:
“Today was good for us, we ‘risked’ putting soft tyres on the bike in the last moments of FP1 because my crew saw the rain on radar images and we thought it was better to get a time in early. I’ve been riding well today, both in the dry and the wet, and I have a good feeling. We’ve managed to work on the brake problem that I had last weekend and it seems better. It’s nice to continue using the ride height device because I’m getting more used to it every time I use it. I’m aiming for a good FP3 tomorrow morning and we’ll take it from there.”
Ken Kawauchi – Technical Manager:
“I didn’t expect so much rain before the afternoon’s FP2, but luckily our riders were strong in the morning and set good lap times, so both Joan and Alex are in the Top 10 at the moment and have provisional Q2 passage. We’re still working and searching for a few little changes to try and be fully prepared for the race. Let’s see what happens tomorrow, but for sure this is a good start.”
BITCI MOTORRAD GRAND PRIX VON ÖSTERREICH – Combined Classification after DAY1:
1. J. ZARCO – Pramac Racing – 01:22.827
2. J. MIR – Team SUZUKI ECSTAR – 01:23.625 – +0.798
3. A. RINS – Team SUZUKI ECSTAR – 01:23.730 – +0.903
4. T. NAKAGAMI – LCR Honda IDEMITSU – 01:23.790 – +0.963
5. A. ESPARGARO – Aprilia Racing Team Gresini – 01:23.841 – +1.014
6. F. QUARTARARO – Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP – 01:23.865 – +1.038
7. A. MARQUEZ – LCR Honda CASTROL – 01:23.881 – +1.054
8. F. BAGNAIA – Ducati Lenovo Team – 01:23.903 – +1.076
9. M. MARQUEZ – Repsol Honda Team – 01:23.967 – +1.140
10. J. MARTIN – Pramac Racing – 01:24.044 – +1.217
11. P. ESPARGARO – Repsol Honda Team – 01:24.097 – +1.270
12. E. BASTIANINI – Avintia Esponsorama – 01:24.237 – +1.410
13. L. MARINI – SKY VR46 Avintia – 01:24.330 – +1.503
14. V. ROSSI – Petronas Yamaha SRT – 01:24.335 – +1.508
15. M. OLIVEIRA – Red Bull KTM Factory Racing – 01:24.347 – +1.520
16. B. BINDER – Red Bull KTM Factory Racing – 01:24.492 – +1.665
17. J. MILLER – Ducati Lenovo Team – 01:24.528 – +1.701
18. D. PETRUCCI – Tech 3 KTM Factory Racing – 01:24.755 – +1.928
19. I. LECUONA – Tech 3 KTM Factory Racing – 01:24.792 – +1.965
20. C. CRUTCHLOW – Petronas Yamaha SRT – 01:25.295 – +2.468
