While Alex Rins approaches his first home race of the year in Aragon (absent in Jerez and Barcelona due to injury) making constant progress since his return, Andrea Iannone arrives there with a bitter taste in his mouth after having abandoned at Misano, officially due to a swollen forearm in a suit that was too small.
Charles Pernat, his agent, did not hide the truth from us: the feeling does not pass between the Suzuki GSX-RR and the Italian rider (see here). Its performance is still affected by poor sensations on the handlebars of the Hamamatsu machine, particularly when braking and entering corners.
However, a lot of work has been put in by the Japanese engineers and technicians, which has resulted in some solid improvements that could bring hope back to box number 29 this weekend in Spain.
Andrea Iannone : “I hope we can see better results than recently in Aragon. The MotorLand circuit is a very nice one and I have good memories there. Furthermore, in Misano, neither Alex nor I were able to run in the planned test. I know Sylvain gave some very important feedback to the engineers. We hope that the information will be of help to us in Aragon. I'm looking forward to riding my GSX-RR again, and trying to improve the feeling, with the hope of a positive race to give us momentum going into the next three races. »
Davide Brivio : “We are getting closer to the final rush of the season and Aragon will be the penultimate round in Europe, so it is an important race in the search for that competitiveness that we have been pursuing since the start of the season. We are very happy with the progress Alex has made in the last few races, and our goal is to continue on this positive path. At the same time, we are working hard to provide Andrea with a machine that meets his needs and gives him a better feel to realize the potential I believe he has. After the race, we will stay in Aragon for two or three days of private tests, both with Alex and with Andrea, to compensate for those we did not do after Misano due to the disrupted weather which only allowed Sylvain Guintoli to ride as a test driver. This will provide a more actionable amount of data and information, encompassing the race and the test. They will be very useful to prepare well for the last four races and also start looking towards 2018.”
MotoGP Championship ranking after #SanMarinoGP:
| 1 | Marc Márquez | Honda | 199 | |
| 2 | Andrea Dovizioso | Ducati | 199 | 0 |
| 3 | Maverick VINALES | Yamaha | 183 | -16 |
| 4 | Valentino ROSSI | Yamaha | 157 | -42 |
| 5 | Dani PEDROSA | Honda | 150 | -49 |
| 6 | johann zarco | Yamaha | 110 | -89 |
| 7 | Danilo PETRUCCI | Ducati | 95 | -104 |
| 8 | Cal Crutchlow | Honda | 92 | -107 |
| 9 | Jorge Lorenzo | Ducati | 90 | -109 |
| 10 | Jonas Folger | Yamaha | 84 | -115 |
| 11 | Alvaro BAUTISTA | Ducati | 62 | -137 |
| 12 | Scott REDDING | Ducati | 54 | -145 |
| 13 | Jack Miller | Honda | 53 | -146 |
| 14 | Aleix Espargaro | Aprilia | 43 | -156 |
| 15 | Loris BAZ | Ducati | 39 | -160 |
| 16 | Andrea Iannone | Suzuki | 33 | -166 |
| 17 | Pol Espargaró | KTM | 31 | -168 |
| 18 | Karel ABRAHAM | Ducati | 28 | -171 |
| 19 | Alex Rins | Suzuki | 27 | -172 |
| 20 | Tito RABAT | Honda | 27 | -172 |
| 21 | Hector BARBERA | Ducati | 23 | -176 |
| 22 | Michael PIRRO | Ducati | 18 | -181 |
| 23 | Bradley SMITH | KTM | 14 | -185 |
| 24 | Mika Kallio | KTM | 6 | -193 |
| 25 | Sam LOWES | Aprilia | 2 | -197 |
| 26 | Sylvain GUINTOLI | Suzuki | 1 | -198 |
