Team Suzuki Press Office – February 16. The second day of testing at the Phillip Island circuit saw Alex Rins making solid improvements in his riding style, with 1.6s cut-off from yesterday’s time, setting him in ninth position in today’s classification. The task proved more difficult for Andrea Iannone, who managed a lap time of 1:29.947 and placing 13th today.
The work of Rins’ crew focused on trying new specs of the chassis, providing different set-up configurations, and once again allowing the Spaniard to gain more and more confidence with the GSX-RR. His path of apprenticeship is progressing step-by-step and his feedback to the team is also improving, making the relationship better. This paid dividends in terms of performance on the track. Rins was also able to improve his riding style, finding better lines on the circuit, resulting in an improvement of 1.630s since yesterday.
Iannone, for his part, worked hard on his pace. He managed to improve on yesterday’s performance, although not on the single lap effectiveness. His crew introduced many variations in the setting and electronics, but could not find the perfect combination they were hoping for. The work done today will be analysed again in the evening to find better solutions for tomorrow.
The last runs of the day saw the debut of the new fairings on the GSX-RR. The laps done by Iannone and Rins with the modified layout were meant to get a first taste and collect some data to determine and prepare tomorrow’s plan.
Davide Brivio – Team Manager:
“I’m happy to see that Alex made some very positive improvements. He could go into the 1’29 bracket which is a good sign. His crew worked hard the whole day taking advantage of yesterday’s outcome, and the direction taken seems to be effective. Of course, there is still a significant amount of work to do, but it is encouraging to see that he is feeling positive on the GSX-RR. Today with Andrea, we struggled a little more. We haven’t found a proper set-up that can suit his needs. We still have to explore some areas and come up with different ideas and make him feel more at ease in many areas of the circuit, trying to adapt to his riding style. We still have tonight and tomorrow to work. We will do our best to support his riding style. We also tried this new fairing. It was the very first time on track. We only did two runs as the purpose was only to get a first taste and collect preliminary data in order to check if it is truly effective. If this is the case, we will have quite a bit of time before Qatar to develop it further. It’s definitely too early to say if it’s race worthy or not. It will require some more in-depth testing and analysis.”
Alex Rins:
“Today we tried different things; some new specs of the chassis and also the new fairings. I feel comfortable. We took a big step since yesterday. Step-by-step, lap-by-lap, I can take better lines and so I can be more consistent. We could improve a lot in the third sector. We are more consistent than yesterday, we gained a lot of corner speed and I’m happy we are working in the right direction.”
Andrea Iannone:
“Today’s been hard because we could not find a way to improve the lap time. We are at a point where we still have work to do. Although, looking at the pace, I’m not that bad and it’s better than yesterday. I still don’t have 100% control of the machine; it’s only the second test, little-by-little. I need to understand how to attack the track to achieve a better lap time and how to best read the GSX-RR, but I believe this will come with time, after riding longer and longer. At the moment, we are focused on many aspects. We have many positives and we are working hard on our negatives.”
AUSTRALIAN TEST – Classification of Day 2:
1. VIÑALES, Maverick – Movistar Yamaha MotoGP – 1:28.847 – Lap 21 / 80
2. MARQUEZ, Marc – Repsol Honda Team – 1:29.309 +0.462 – Lap 20 / 107
3. CRUTCHLOW, Cal – LCR Honda – 1:29.325 +0.478 – Lap 28 / 80
4. BAUTISTA, Alvaro – Pull&Bear Aspar Team – 1:29.411 +0.564 – Lap 42 / 86
5. DOVIZIOSO, Andrea – Ducati Team – 1:29.483 +0.636 – Lap 32 / 55
6. ESPARGARO, Aleix – Aprilia Racing Team Gresini – 1:29.501 +0.654 – Lap 18 / 69
7. FOLGER, Jonas – Monster Yamaha Tech 3 – 1:29.664 +0.817 – Lap 29 / 65
8. ROSSI, Valentino – Movistar Yamaha MotoGP – 1:29.674 +0.827 – Lap 18 / 70
9. RINS, Alex – Team SUZUKI ECSTAR – 1:29.802 +0.955 – Lap 68 / 80
10. MILLER, Jack – Team EG 0,0 Marc VDS – 1:29.838 +0.991 – Lap 36 / 83
11. ZARCO, Johann – Monster Yamaha Tech 3 – 1:29.880 +1.033 – Lap 84 / 88
12. IANNONE, Andrea – Team SUZUKI ECSTAR – 1:29.947 +1.100 – Lap 19 / 72
13. ABRAHAM, Karel – Pull&Bear Aspar Team – 1:30.142 +1.295 – Lap 20 / 73
14. PETRUCCI, Danilo – Octo Pramac Racing – 1:30.150 +1.303 – Lap 64 / 65
15. LORENZO, Jorge – Ducati Team – 1:30.197 +1.350 – Lap 32 / 64
16. PEDROSA, Dani – Repsol Honda Team – 1:30.245 +1.398 – Lap 38 / 40
17. BARBERA, Hector – Reale Esponsorama Racing – 1:30.352 +1.505 – Lap 18 / 62
18. REDDING, Scott – Octo Pramac Racing – 1:30.435 +1.588 – Lap 83 / 90
19. ESPARGARO, Pol – Red Bull KTM Factory Racing – 1:30.645 +1.798 – Lap 24 / 59
20. BAZ, Loris – Reale Esponsorama Racing – 1:30.852 +2.005 – Lap 34 / 53
21. LOWES, Sam – Aprilia Racing Team Gresini – 1:30.895 +2.048 – Lap 34 / 64
22. SMITH, Bradley – Red Bull KTM Factory Racing – 1:31.704 +2.857 – Lap 35 / 81
