German GP Ends At Turn 3 For Luckless Suzuki Team

• Alex Rins taken down on third corner.
• Andrea Iannone hit and forced wide in the same accident.
• Team look ahead to the second half of the season.

Andrea Iannone and Alex Rins were keen and ready to make up positions from their 8th and 11th grid positions respectively, and as the lights went out they hoped to bring the strong and promising race pace shown throughout the weekend in Germany. But at Turn 3 on Lap 1 Team SUZUKI ECSTAR’s riders were victims of a very costly error by another rider; Iannone was struck and forced wide, and Rins taken down and into the gravel trap. The race was over for a bitterly disappointed Alex, who was thankfully uninjured, while Andrea was able to keep going despite considerable damage sustained to the rear of his GSX-RR. The Italian worked his way up from the back of the field to take 12th place and valuable championship points.

Ken Kawauchi – Technical Manager
“Today for us, after the first lap, everything was already finished. The accident caused by another rider included both our riders and it ended Alex’s race and made it very hard for Andrea. It was key that Andrea didn’t give up, and he tried to recover as many positions as possible, but we all know how difficult the Sachsenring is for overtaking. It was a real pity because we had very good race pace and we expected a better day. After this two week break we will come back stronger.”

Davide Brivio – Team Manager
“It’s sad when the day is negative and it’s not your fault. Unfortunately there was the accident at Turns 2 and 3, which took both Alex and Andrea in one shot the first crashed and the latter had to continue from very far back, and our race from that moment was extremely compromised. Andrea tried to recover as much as he could and he got to 12th position, which was good in a race where it was not easy to recover due to tyre management. Anyway, everything that happened today was of a consequence of this early incident, it’s sad and shouldn’t really happen at track like Sachsenring where everybody knows it’s very tight.”

Andrea Iannone
“The race was over for me at Turn 3. I think Pol Espargarò should have thought a bit more about what he was doing, because there isn’t space at that corner and he was completely on the kerb – there wasn’t a line there. I heard the bike behind me and I started to pick my bike up a bit because I expected there could be contact, that manoeuvre prevented me from crashing but my bike was damaged and I lost more than 10 places. I tried my best but it was difficult to make up positions. My lap time was not bad, I could have been in the top 5 to top 8 places. I understand that everyone wants to push hard in the early laps, but it’s more dangerous than ever in MotoGP now and people must be careful. I have shown good pace in the last few races and I’m waiting to continue this good form in Brno.”

Alex Rins
“I was on my line, and it was very strange because when I changed direction to enter Turn 3 I found Pol was on the inside line, on the kerb. He touched Andrea and then he crashed and I went with him because there was no space to avoid it. I’m really sad because we worked very hard with the team all weekend and it’s disappointing to finish like this. This season has been going very well, despite the crashes in the early part of the year. We’ve been fighting a lot with the lead group and it’s nice for me and for all the team. We’re looking forward to coming back after the summer break.”

GP of Germany – Race Classification:
1. Marc MARQUEZ Repsol Honda Team 41’05.019
2. Valentino ROSSI Movistar Yamaha MotoGP +2.196
3. Maverick VIÑALES Movistar Yamaha MotoGP +2.776
4. Danilo PETRUCCI Alma Pramac Racing +3.376
5. Alvaro BAUTISTA Angel Nieto Team +5.183
6. Jorge LORENZO Ducati Team +5.780
7. Andrea DOVIZIOSO Ducati Team +7.941
8. Dani PEDROSA Repsol Honda Team +12.711
9. Johann ZARCO Monster Yamaha Tech 3 +14.428
10. Bradley SMITH Red Bull KTM Factory Racing +21.474
11. Hafizh SYAHRIN Monster Yamaha Tech 3 +25.809
12. Andrea IANNONE Team SUZUKI ECSTAR +25.963
13. Tito RABAT Reale Avintia Racing +29.040
14. Jack MILLER Alma Pramac Racing +29.325
15. Scott REDDING Aprilia Racing Team Gresini +34.123
16. Stefan BRADL EG 0,0 Marc VDS +38.207
17. Thomas LUTHI EG 0,0 Marc VDS +49.369
18. Karel ABRAHAM Angel Nieto Team +1’01.022
19. Xavier SIMEON Reale Avintia Racing +1’16.692
Not Classified
35 Cal CRUTCHLOW LCR Honda CASTROL
30 Takaaki NAKAGAMI LCR Honda IDEMITSU
Not Finished 1st Lap
42 Alex RINS Team SUZUKI ECSTAR
44 Pol ESPARGARO Red Bull KTM Factory Racing

MotoGP World Standings 2018:
1. Marc MARQUEZ Honda 165
2. Valentino ROSSI Yamaha 119
3. Maverick VIÑALES Yamaha 109
4. Andrea DOVIZIOSO Ducati 88
5. Johann ZARCO Yamaha 88
6. Jorge LORENZO Ducati 85
7. Danilo PETRUCCI Ducati 84
8. Cal CRUTCHLOW Honda 79
9. Andrea IANNONE Suzuki 75
10. Jack MILLER Ducati 57
11. Alex RINS Suzuki 53
12. Dani PEDROSA Honda 49
13. Alvaro BAUTISTA Ducati 44
14. Pol ESPARGARO KTM 32
15. Tito RABAT Ducati 30
16. Hafizh SYAHRIN Yamaha 22
17. Franco MORBIDELLI Honda 19
18. Aleix ESPARGARO Aprilia 16
19. Bradley SMITH KTM 13
20. Scott REDDING Aprilia 12
21. Takaaki NAKAGAMI Honda 10
22. Mika KALLIO KTM 6
23. Karel ABRAHAM Ducati 4
24. Thomas LUTHI Honda
25. Stefan BRADL Honda
26. Xavier SIMEON Ducati

Story issued by: Team SUZUKI ECSTAR