Team Suzuki Press Office – September 26.
It was a tough day in qualifying today, with the pole-setter destroying the previous circuit record by more than half a second and the gap between second and third also being around half a second.
MotoGP was at its competitive best once more as Aleix Espargaro managed to sensibly improve his feeling with his machine and place his GSX-RR only four-tenths-of-a-second from the front row, thanks to his 1’47.573 lap that gives him seventh place in qualifying.
The result comes from a positive morning for Team SUZUKI ECSTAR, where the Spaniard could find a lot more confidence with his machine and being within the top riders for the whole FP3 session. Finally the 1’48.524s he scored in FP2 yesterday set him in the 10th place in the combined classification and having direct access to Q2.
Maverick Viñales also improved a lot from yesterday and recovered his usual place in the top 10, finding a new positive set-up on his machine which allowed him to make several attempts at his best lap in the FP3 session, finally hitting the 1’48.449s mark that gave him ninth place and getting him directly into Q2. Qualifying was a little harder than expected, due to different track conditions, and he couldn’t do better than 12th place, with a 1’48.648s lap.
Davide Brivio – Team Manager:
“Finally today we could make positive steps forward from yesterday, we managed to deliver better performing bike set-ups to the riders and they did a good job. This morning we got the direct access to Q2 with both, we have been missing this result for a while now and it’s a positive feeling to be there again. Then Aleix managed to capitalise on his improvements, he had a very good pace and could be effective also in the fast-lap attack. The position he got for the grid gives us hope and also the pace he had seems encouraging. Maverick as well could make a huge improvement; yesterday he couldn’t feel comfortable at all while today he found a more effective set-up that helped him to find more confidence. Since yesterday he was feeling unhappy and he had to focus on qualifying today, therefore we still need to finalise some aspects for the race pace. However it is positive that we could stand up from the not so positive day we had yesterday, it is proof for the team and the riders of our direction. I feel that if tomorrow’s weather will stay dry we can finally get back to the fight.”
Aleix Espargaro:
“It’s good to be back in the top group. After yesterday I didn’t feel very comfortable at all while this morning we could make a good improvement. It is important to start from seventh place, it is more like the place where I think we deserve to be and will allow me to be immediately up to the front of the pack. In fact today’s qualifying was very, very hard, the circuit record was completely destroyed and I’m on the third row although I am only 0.4s from the front row. This means that we found a proper way to proceed and we are getting back closer to the top. Finally my pace is pretty much the same as other middle pack riders, therefore I am confident that tomorrow we can make a positive race.”
Maverick Viñales:
“Finally we found some directions to work in and we could make a very important step forward. Yesterday we lost pretty much all the day because we couldn’t find the proper direction, while today we managed to be very competitive. This pays back our efforts and re-ignites our positive expectations. Of course today I had to focus on qualifying, in FP3 I thought to be as fast as possible to hit direct access to Q2 and in qualifying as well I focused on getting the best place available. This means that we couldn’t finalise the work for the consistent race pace, probably we still miss something to be relaxed and confident, but we still have the warm-up to try to find something more and consolidate our pace. The race will be tough, the top riders are doing very well but also the middle pack is very competitive. We need to get as many points as possible for the championship therefore we will work hard in warm-up to finalise the race-pace set-up and try to be aggressive in the race itself.”
GP of Aragon – Qualifying classification:
1. Marc MARQUEZ, Repsol Honda Team – 1’46.635
2. Jorge LORENZO, Movistar Yamaha MotoGP – 1’46.743 +0.108
3. Andrea IANNONE, Ducati Team – 1’47.178 +0.543
4. Pol ESPARGARO, Monster Yamaha Tech 3 – 1’47.334 +0.699
5. Dani PEDROSA, Repsol Honda Team – 1’47.357 +0.722
6. Valentino ROSSI, Movistar Yamaha MotoGP – 1’47.492 +0.857
7. Aleix ESPARGARO, Team SUZUKI ECSTAR – 1’47.573 +0.938
8. Cal CRUTCHLOW, LCR Honda – 1’47.574 +0.939
9. Danilo PETRUCCI, Octo Pramac Racing – 1’47.775 +1.140
10. Bradley SMITH, Monster Yamaha Tech 3 – 1’47.830 +1.195
11. Yonny HERNANDEZ, Octo Pramac Racing – 1’48.556 +1.921
12. Maverick VIÑALES, Team SUZUKI ECSTAR – 1’48.648 +2.013
