Team Suzuki Press Office – April 22.
Andrea Iannone: 11th, 2’05.741
Alex Rins: NC
The qualifying day at the Americas GP has been a tough one for Team SUZUKI ECSTAR, with Alex Rins out of the game after FP3 because of a fracture to his left wrist and Andrea Iannone struggling to find the proper touch for a good qualifying run. While Rins was undergoing a stabilizing intervention at the University Medical Center Brackenridge in Austin, Iannone went through the Q2 finishing in 11th place with 2’05.741.
The morning session saw the track in very precarious conditions, with many riders crashing. Both Team SUZUKI ECSTAR’s riders crashed as well, but Alex Rins suffered the most serious consequences, with a displaced fracture to his wrist. Iannone struggled as well to demonstrate the proper confidence with his GSX-RR, but thanks to his tenth place time, scored yesterday in the afternoon, he was able to keep his tenth place in the combined classification which will allow him direct access to Q2.
The qualifying session saw the Italian rider in another slide, which had no major repercussions to him or the machine but made him lose some time, and – most important – the possibility to fully take advantage of the potential of soft tyres. This resulted in the 11th place time, which will require him to undertake a catch up race.
Davide Brivio – Team Manager
“Today we had a really bad start with the crash of Alex who is reported to have a pretty serious injury to his left wrist. We are now monitoring his situation and his recovery. And the day didn’t improve in qualifying, since with Andrea we worked very hard, but we couldn’t yet put him in the conditions that would best push him forward. The track conditions changed radically since yesterday. The grip was much poorer, and also we saw many other riders crashing. Indeed, Andrea is one of the riders who is struggling to adapt to the new conditions, without being able to show the proper confident racing style. Throughout the day we tried several improvements, but so far we couldn’t find the proper pace. We have to further investigate which options we have for tomorrow to improve and deliver him a machine that can give him a better feel for the race.”
Andrea Iannone
“Honestly we weren’t expecting to struggle so much. I’m pretty worried. It’s a shame we cannot perform as good as we’d like and we deserve, but for me it’s also a part of the growing process we are in. Therefore, we will already be trying to improve tomorrow. Anyway we hope to get some improvements pretty soon and we will see if we are heading in the right direction. The situation got worse today because of the track conditions. Yesterday we were not so far off, and I was confident, but with these new conditions I am struggling more.¨
GP of The Americas – Q2 Classification:
1. Marc MARQUEZ, Repsol Honda Team – 2’02.741
2. Maverick VIÑALES, Movistar Yamaha MotoGP – 2’02.871 +0.130
3. Valentino ROSSI, Movistar Yamaha MotoGP – 2’03.673 +0.932
4. Dani PEDROSA, Repsol Honda Team – 2’03.866 +1.125
5. Johann ZARCO, Monster Yamaha Tech 3 – 2’03.928 +1.187
6. Jorge LORENZO, Ducati Team – 2’04.151 +1.410
7. Andrea DOVIZIOSO, Ducati Team – 2’04.431 +1.690
8. Jonas FOLGER, Monster Yamaha Tech 3 – 2’04.623 +1.882
9. Cal CRUTCHLOW, LCR Honda – 2’04.661 +1.920
10. Scott REDDING, OCTO Pramac Racing – 2’04.673 +1.932
11. Andrea IANNONE, Team SUZUKI ECSTAR – 2’05.741 +3.000
12. Jack MILLER, EG 0,0 Marc VDS – 2’05.970 +3.229
