Team Suzuki Press Office – June 4.
Alex Rins: 7th – 1’39.145 (+ 0.403)
Joan Mir: 17th – 1’39.664 (Q1)
The Catalan GP will see Team Suzuki Ecstar’s riders start from seventh and 17th on the grid after a sizzling qualifying session in which Joan Mir was unable to get through Q1 and Alex Rins held on for a third-row start.
After using FP3 and FP4 to continue working on settings and tyre options, despite getting close to the Top 10 in FP3, Mir missed out on passage to Q2, whereas Rins managed to slot himself into ninth place on his final push. In FP4 the track was running extremely hot as the riders got the feel for tomorrow’s likely race conditions.
Mir tried to break into the all-important top spots in Q1 but he was unable to, although he felt an improvement on the front-end feel compared to yesterday. He closed the session in seventh, putting him 17th on the grid, and he hopes to carve through tomorrow.
In Q2 Rins felt confident on his first exit, pushing up to third, but on his second exit he couldn’t find any more time and he therefore finished up seventh. He’s ready to attack tomorrow’s race from this third row spot.
Alex Rins:
“I’m feeling happy with my performance so far this weekend; the team and I are doing a good job and I have nice pace. I gave everything in qualifying, and seventh isn’t a bad place to start. It will be a very demanding race tomorrow; in terms of heat, competitiveness, and tyre wear. My target will be to get up the front and fight with those guys, so let’s try and get a good start and go for it.”
Joan Mir:
“I’m still not feeling 100% confident with my feeling, but we’ve made a good step forward and I’m happy about that. So, because of this work done overnight, I was able to do much better on used tyres. I am still struggling to do a time attack, because on the new tyres I don’t have the best feeling. The main thing is that we know the situation and I will work to overcome it. And I know that I can have strong pace, especially later on in the race.”
Livio Suppo – Team Manager:
“The result isn’t fantastic, but we’re still quite happy because Alex confirmed the good feeling he had yesterday and with the race set-up he’s fast. He missed out on the second row by a very small amount, but he has strong pace. Joan made a big step compared to yesterday, especially on used tyres. He didn’t have the best feeling with new tyres, but I’m sure he can have a good race. Let’s wait and see…”
GRAND PRIX OF CATALUNYA QUALIFYING CLASSIFICATION:
1 Aleix ESPARGARO Aprilia Racing 1’38.742
2 Francesco BAGNAIA Ducati Lenovo Team 1’38.773 0.031 0.031
3 Fabio QUARTARARO Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP 1’38.959 0.217 0.186
4 Johann ZARCO Prima Pramac Racing 1’39.027 0.285 0.068
5 Fabio DI GIANNANTONIO Gresini Racing MotoGP 1’39.099 0.357 0.072
6 Jorge MARTIN Prima Pramac Racing 1’39.142 0.400 0.043
7 Alex RINS Team SUZUKI ECSTAR 1’39.145 0.403 0.003
8 Maverick VIÑALES Aprilia Racing 1’39.397 0.655 0.252
9 Luca MARINI Mooney VR46 Racing Team 1’39.451 0.709 0.054
10 Pol ESPARGARO Repsol Honda Team 1’39.477 0.735 0.026
11 Jack MILLER Ducati Lenovo Team 1’39.523 0.781 0.046
12 Takaaki NAKAGAMI LCR Honda IDEMITSU 1’39.611 0.869 0.088
13 Marco BEZZECCHI Mooney VR46 Racing Team Q1
14 Enea BASTIANINI Gresini Racing MotoGP Q1
15 Brad BINDER Red Bull KTM Factory Racing Q1
16 Miguel OLIVEIRA Red Bull KTM Factory Racing Q1
17 Joan MIR Team SUZUKI ECSTAR Q1
18 Franco MORBIDELLI Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP Q1
19 Andrea DOVIZIOSO WithU Yamaha RNF MotoGP Team Q1
20 Remy GARDNER Tech3 KTM Factory Racing Q1
21 Stefan BRADL Repsol Honda Team Q1
22 Michele PIRRO Aruba.it Racing Q1
23 Darryn BINDER WithU Yamaha RNF MotoGP Team Q1
24 Raul FERNANDEZ Tech3 KTM Factory Racing Q1
25 Alex MARQUEZ LCR Honda CASTROL Q1
