Team Suzuki Press Office – April 9. Team SUZUKI ECSTAR’s Maverick Viñales put together a potential front-row starting position with third place in today’s second Free Practice session ahead of round three of the MotoGP™ World Championship at the Circuit of The Americas in Austin, Texas as team-mate Aleix Espargaró suffered a small get-off in the closing stages and finished 14th.
Both riders improved their lap-times and also settings aboard their GSX-RRs; Viñales scored a lap-time of 2’04.895 compared his earlier FP1 time of 2:06.337, while Espargaró clocked a 2’05.662-lap (2’06.482 in FP1).
The morning session was spent by both to get acquainted with the new grip of the track, as well as the tyres and set-up. The lap-times dropped pretty quickly and both Viñales and Espargaró found good feelings and efficiency with their GSX-RRs.
Davide Brivio – Team Manager:
“We are happy about the progress we’ve made with Maverick during the day, as this morning we were not as competitive as we wanted to be. Finally, in the two sessions we found a good time on the single lap, but also a good pace, which meant we made some progress. It still can be improved, therefore we will continue the work with him tomorrow. Aleix, as well, made some good progress but unfortunately he couldn’t close his last lap, which was the time-attack lap, because he incurred a light crash, but his improvements are solid and his feelings are good; he found a good set-up and we have a positive direction to work towards to.”
Maverick Viñales:
“We have done a good job today, we did many improvements throughout the sessions and most importantly I did my best time with worn and used tyres, which mean we are pretty confident with the pace. We still miss some improvements, we already have some ideas and I guess tomorrow we will go to improve further. I feel very confident in sector 1 and 2, more technical and fast, which are the ideal path for my GSX-RR’s characteristics. I still miss something with the stability in hard braking, and this is the reason why I lose-out in sector 3 and 4. But we are conscious of the problems and this will allow us to find effective solutions. The step forward we made from the morning to the afternoon is very important, but yet this is not enough; tomorrow the others will improve a lot and therefore we must do the same.”
Aleix Espargaró:
“Today we made some positive improvements and my lap-times dropped a lot from the morning to the afternoon. The position in classification is not yet satisfying but the feeling I have is good; we found a good set-up and this allowed me to improve little-by-little. We had the chance to try different tyres and we gained some very useful feedback. Maybe if we’d been a little luckier I could be into the top-six, but we still have another session tomorrow morning and we can improve as there is a lot of room for improvement.”
GP of Americas FP2 Results:
1 Marc MARQUEZ Repsol Honda Team – 2’04.034
2 Andrea IANNONE Ducati Team – 2’04.740 + 0.706
3 Maverick VIÑALES Team SUZUKI ECSTAR – 2’04.895 + 0.861
4 Scott REDDING OCTO Pramac Yakhnich – 2’04.899 + 0.865
5 Jorge LORENZO Movistar Yamaha MotoGP – 2’04.901 + 0.867
6 Valentino ROSSI Movistar Yamaha MotoGP – 2’04.974 + 0.940
7 Loris BAZ Avintia Racing – 2’05.190 + 1.156
8 Dani PEDROSA Repsol Honda Team – 2’05.194 + 1.160
9 Andrea DOVIZIOSO Ducati Team – 2’05.195 + 1.161
10 Cal CRUTCHLOW LCR Honda – 2’05.393 + 1.359
14 Aleix ESPARGARO Team SUZUKI ECSTAR 2’05.662 +1.628
