Team Suzuki Press Office – June 3.
Andrea Iannone: 16th place, 1’47.625 +0.567
Sylvain Guintoli: 24th place, 1’48.892 +1.834
Today’s qualifying at the Mugello circuit in Italy saw Andrea Iannone improve his pace in preparation of the race, but not able to best his fastest in qualifying on the single lap, he ended his Q1 session in 16th place. In the morning he showed his performance had improved from yesterday, but not enough to jump into the top ten and get a direct ticket to Q2. In the afternoon, the intense work in FP4 resulted in a competitive pace and race configuration, but the qualifying session was even more challenging and he was unable to get to Q2.
Frenchman Sylvain Guintoli had another positive day with solid improvements, and important data collection for the team. His pace proved to be effective enough for a recovery in the race, and his feeling on the bike notably improved.
Davide Brivio – Team Manager
“Tomorrow we will make every effort for the race, as unfortunately our qualifying didn’t go as well as hoped. Although with Andrea we have still margins for improvements his pace is not bad. Where we struggle is finding that “extra” performance during the qualifying. We will work until the warm-up to try to explore some ideas, and then be solid for the race; it’s going to be a tough one, but we can still have a positive performance. With Sylvain we did make some improvements. He is in a similar situation, not a bad pace, but less effective in the time attack. With the pace he has, he could try to improve his position and stay in the fight with some other riders. Apart from that, we did a good job of finalization and setup refining.”
Andrea Iannone
“My feeling with the bike has improved, although the result of the qualifying is not satisfying. It’s difficult for me to find the needed efficacy to improve the time attack. I needed to be very fast in qualifying, and lacking this means we start in 16th place. It will be difficult to recover from this, but I hope to get in a great start, and to recover in the early laps; my pace is not bad. Today I feel better and I´m in less pain, but I feel very weak.”
Sylvain Guintoli
“We’ve managed to improve again this afternoon and I’m getting a better understanding of the track. I clocked my best time when I wasn’t actually pushing; I was just running the tyres nicely. This tells you a lot about how a MotoGP bike needs to be ridden. And finally when I went out really looking to push it, the performance result was slower. It’s good, I understood it. And being only two seconds from the pole in such a technical track is not bad. We’ll try to improve in warm-up. I’ve already seen one sector where I lose time and I know that I can improve. Then I will try to have a solid race, hopefully battling it out with some of the other competitors.”
GP of Italy – Qualifying classification:
1. Maverick VIÑALES, Movistar Yamaha MotoGP – 1’46.575
2. Valentino ROSSI, Movistar Yamaha MotoGP – 1’46.814 +0.239
3. Andrea DOVIZIOSO, Ducati Team – 1’46.835 +0.260
4. Michele PIRRO, Ducati Team – 1’46.878 +0.303
5. Dani PEDROSA, Repsol Honda Team – 1’46.999 +0.424
6. Marc MARQUEZ, Repsol Honda Team – 1’47.050 +0.475
7. Jorge LORENZO, Ducati Team – 1’47.152 +0.577
8. Alvaro BAUTISTA, Pull&Bear Aspar Team – 1’47.167 +0.592
9. Danilo PETRUCCI, OCTO Pramac Racing – 1’47.266 +0.691
10. Tito RABAT, EG 0,0 Marc VDS – 1’47.282 +0.707
11. Johann ZARCO, Monster Yamaha Tech 3 – 1’47.319 +0.744
12. Aleix ESPARGARO, Aprilia Racing Team Gresini – 1’47.475 +0.900
13. Cal CRUTCHLOW, LCR Honda – 1’47.220 – Q1
14. Hector BARBERA, Reale Avintia Racing – 1’47.272 – Q1
15. Jonas FOLGER, Monster Yamaha Tech 3 – 1’47.305 – Q1
16. Andrea IANNONE, Team SUZUKI ECSTAR – 1’47.625 – Q1
17. Loris BAZ, Reale Avintia Racing – 1’47.809 – Q1
18. Pol ESPARGARO, Red Bull KTM Factory Racing – 1’47.940 – Q1
19. Jack MILLER, EG 0,0 Marc VDS – 1’47.961 – Q1
20. Scott REDDING, OCTO Pramac Racing – 1’47.975 – Q1
21. Karel ABRAHAM, Pull&Bear Aspar Team – 1’48.361 – Q1
22. Sam LOWES, Aprilia Racing Team Gresini – 1’48.416 – Q1
23. Bradley SMITH, Red Bull KTM Factory Racing – 1’48.594 – Q1
24. Sylvain GUINTOLI, Team SUZUKI ECSTAR – 1’48.892 – Q1
