Team Suzuki Press Office – September 12. Qualifying at the Misano MotoGP today saw some improvements for Team SUZUKI ECSTAR riders Aleix Espargaro and Maverick Viñales as they both went faster than yesterday.
The morning’s FP3 was difficult, with no direct access to Q2, so both riders had to run in Q1 to fight for the last two-slots for the first four-rows of the grid.
In Q1, the pace was high, and Espargaro and Viñales both settled in the top-five, being provisional leaders several times throughout the session, but at the end the more-experienced Espargaro gained access to Q2, with Viñales putting his GSX-RR in 14th place with the time of 1’33.439. However, in this last session of the day, Espargarò set his best lap-time of 1’33.187, giving the Spaniard 10th place overall.
Davide Brivio – Team Manager:
“These have been two days of intense work for us. Following the test here in July we found different conditions and so we had to review some parameters and set-ups. We worked hard: Aleix managed to find a good feeling, therefore tomorrow he will try to make-up some places and stay in the group. His pace looks not-so-bad so we hope for a better race. With Maverick, we are yet in a good shape and also in qualifying he couldn’t exploit the soft tyre and couldn’t improve as he wished to. We still need to work to finalise the best machine for him, so tonight we will try to find something different from the data; even if we know that Maverick feels more confident with the hard tyre than the soft tyre, this disappointed us in qualifying but could be a good point for the race.”
Aleix Espargaro:
“We improved the machine from yesterday and now we are a little closer to the top. Yesterday we had many issues with the grip and today things went better, even if the problem’s pretty the same: We lack some acceleration and we can’t deliver effectively our power to the ground, but oday my crew did a great job; Tom made some good settings that helped me to limit power-sapping wheelies. Beside the qualifying time I believe that my pace improved a lot so I will try to make a good start and keep contact with the top-10 tomorrow.”
Maverick Viñales:
“I’m unsatisfied with the day; this was probably the worst qualifying of the year for me. When we came here for testing, my lap times were faster but more-importantly our capability to set the machine-up competitively was much higher. Here we couldn’t find the proper set-up, I felt the bike sliding a lot and I couldn’t get close to my previous times. It’s a pity, we worked a lot here to prepare for the race and now that we are in a race situation we can’t find the solution. Anyway, with the hard tyre, I don’t feel so bad and my pace is pretty consistent and fast, so I will try to recover as many places as I can at the start and keep in contact with the top-10 tomorrow.”
GP of San Marino – Qualifying Classification:
1. Jorge LORENZO, Movistar Yamaha MotoGP – 1’32.146
2. Marc MARQUEZ, Repsol Honda Team – 1’32.252 +0.106
3. Valentino ROSSI, Movistar Yamaha MotoGP – 1’32.358 +0.212
4. Dani PEDROSA, Repsol Honda Team – 1’32.434 +0.288
5. Michele PIRRO, Ducati Team – 1’32.736 +0.590
6. Bradley SMITH, Monster Yamaha Tech 3 – 1’32.801 +0.655
7. Andrea IANNONE, Ducati Team – 1’32.821 +0.675
8. Andrea DOVIZIOSO, Ducati Team – 1’32.934 +0.788
9. Danilo PETRUCCI, Octo Pramac Racing – 1’33.169 +1.023
10. Aleix ESPARGARO, Team SUZUKI ECSTAR – 1’33.187 +1.041
11. Cal CRUTCHLOW, LCR Honda – 1’33.220 +1.074
12. Pol ESPARGARO, Monster Yamaha Tech 3 – 1’33.222 +1.076
13. Scott REDDING, EG 0,0 Marc VDS – 1’33.340 +0.379
14. Maverick VIÑALES, Team SUZUKI ECSTAR – 1’33.439 +0.478
