Team Suzuki Press Office – August 9.
Styrian GP Day 1:
Joan Mir: 2nd – 1’23.881 (+ 0.076)
Alex Rins: 4th – 1’24.221 (+ 0.416)
Team Suzuki Ecstar returned to MotoGP™ action on Friday following a five-week summer break. Austria’s Red Bull Ring awaited the eager riders and fans for the first in a double header, the Styrian Grand Prix.
Both Joan Mir and Alex Rins got off to a great start in the morning’s FP1 session, quickly getting to grips with the circuit in Spielberg. They set about putting in lots of laps with their GSX-RRs on the dry track and found themselves with comfortably strong pace. Mir rocketed to the top of the time sheets early on and was able to maintain this number one spot for the vast majority of the session, only slipping to second by +0.076 at the very end of FP1. Rins was firmly in the Top 10 throughout the morning, and a time attack brought him up into fourth.
The Suzuki pair showed their form around the track as Rins clocked the fastest time in Sector 2 and Mir in Sectors 3 and 4.
A heavy rain shower ahead of FP2 left the riders with no choice but to test the track in wet conditions – something which may prove useful if Sunday’s predicted downpours arrive. Mir and Rins were not put off by the slippery conditions and they were determined to continue their good work ahead of tomorrow’s sessions. They managed this very well, closing the session in third and sixth respectively, and completing Friday in second and fourth on combined.
Joan Mir:
“I’m happy about today, straight away on my first pit exit I felt comfortable on the bike and I was able to push and be quite fast with consistent lap times. So it has been a good starting point, the bike has a solid base set-up. This afternoon in the wet and mixed conditions it was a bit more difficult, but it was important to understand which tyres might work best in the wet because on Sunday there could be rain, so it’s useful to try the feeling in various different conditions. We’ve done a great job today so overall I’m feeling good.”
Alex Rins:
“Both FP1 and FP2 were good for us. At the beginning of the first session it was a bit tricky to find the speed and get the correct braking points, but in the end it went well, we did some good laps and came up the timesheet. Then FP2 was wet, but in the end it was quite nice because by the end of the session the track was drier and I kept the positive feelings with the bike. If tomorrow we will have the conditions to try it already, it will be exciting to see how it works, but the main goal at the moment is to get into Q2.”
Ken Kawauchi – Technical Manager:
“For the moment I think we’ve restarted the season well. This morning was dry and then this afternoon it started out wet and then later on it was damp, and it seems that we are competitive in all conditions at the moment. We’ll continue working on our race set-up and tomorrow in FP3 we’ll hope to go straight to Q2 which will put us in a better position to get the best possible results.”
MICHELIN® GRAND PRIX OF STYRIA – Combined Classification after DAY1:
1. T. NAKAGAMI – LCR Honda IDEMITSU – 01:23.805
2. J. MIR – Team SUZUKI ECSTAR – 01:23.881 +0.076
3. A. ESPARGARO – Aprilia Racing Team Gresini – 01:24.183 +0.378
4. A. RINS – Team SUZUKI ECSTAR – 01:24.221 +0.416
5. P. ESPARGARO – Repsol Honda Team – 01:24.254 +0.449
6. M. MARQUEZ – Repsol Honda Team – 01:24.475 +0.670
7. M. VIÑALES – Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP – 01:24.492 +0.687
8. J. ZARCO – Pramac Racing – 01:24.580 +0.775
9. F. QUARTARARO – Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP – 01:24.580 +0.775
10. J. MILLER – Ducati Lenovo Team – 01:24.827 +1.022
11. D. PEDROSA – Red Bull KTM Factory Racing – 01:24.850 +1.045
12. F. BAGNAIA – Ducati Lenovo Team – 01:24.915 +1.110
13. A. MARQUEZ – LCR Honda CASTROL – 01:24.959 +1.154
14. L. MARINI – SKY VR46 Avintia – 01:25.207 +1.402
15. M. OLIVEIRA – Red Bull KTM Factory Racing – 01:25.238 +1.433
16. V. ROSSI – Petronas Yamaha SRT – 01:25.264 +1.459
17. J. MARTIN – Pramac Racing – 01:25.316 +1.511
18. B. BINDER – Red Bull KTM Factory Racing – 01:25.317 +1.512
19. D. PETRUCCI – Tech 3 KTM Factory Racing – 01:25.409 +1.604
20. I. LECUONA – Tech 3 KTM Factory Racing – 01:25.499 +1.694
21. E. BASTIANINI – Avintia Esponsorama – 01:25.585 +1.780
22. L. SAVADORI – Aprilia Racing Team Gresini – 01:25.793 +1.988
23. C. CRUTCHLOW – Petronas Yamaha SRT – 01:26.090 +2.285
