At Suzuki, we work in all directions. The ailerons, of course, even if the Hamamatsu appendages look like abortives compared to the triplanes of the Orange Baron, but also the electronics and new Michelin tires, front and rear, to try to gain the few tenths that are missing from Maverick Vinales and Aleix Espargaro to tickle the Fantastic Three.
Davide Brivio – Team Manager: “It’s always useful when we have the opportunity to stay at a circuit to analyze what happened during the race weekend and make comparisons. This helps us a lot to increase our knowledge in all technical fields.
With Maverick we managed to find some different settings that probably would have helped us in yesterday's race. We worked with a front tire that we hadn't chosen for this weekend, although we were able to make it work more efficiently. This is useful because it is the same tire we are going to have for the next three races.
Aleix also found positive improvements, again through tuning, and he is now consistently close to the best. It was important for us to restore his confidence in the bike; together with his team, he worked intensively to overcome the difficulties he encountered during the pre-season, and I am happy to see him competitive again, as he can be. Coming back to the tires, we also tested two new rear tires and this was useful in giving our impressions to Michelin, which they will use for future developments. After this positive day, we gained confidence, so it is easier for us to look forward to Le Mans with new enthusiasm. »
Maverick Vinales, 3rd, 1'39.536, 91 laps: “my feeling about the wings is that their help is not huge, but they can certainly help in certain situations. They're not going to save us tenths on the clock, but they allow me to drive a little more comfortably, and that's a big help over the distance of a race.
Our priority was to work on the settings because I need to reduce slippage and find better traction because Le Mans will be a very demanding track in terms of hard braking and acceleration.
I tried the new rear tires but, above all, I prefer the soft front tire. During the weekend we couldn't get the best efficiency with them, so we didn't use them, but today, with new settings, they work very well and we will try to use them more frequently. »
Alex Espargaro, 6th, 1'39.682, 71 laps: “today we mainly tried the wings after their appearance in February, and we did a lot of work on the different adjustment possibilities. Electronics is another area we've been delving into as I had some traction issues yesterday during the race which we tried to resolve.
The positive thing is that I only used three tires to do the 75 laps today, because we needed to further study the potential of the GSX-RR when the tires are really worn, and the times confirmed that we could perform well, even in these conditions and with a rear tire that had already done 25 laps.
I tried the new Michelin front tires and I don't feel very comfortable with the new intermediate; For the moment, the tire we used in the race (the same for the first 8 drivers) seems to me to have the greatest potential and provide the best sensations.
We were able to make comparisons about the fins; They don't make a huge improvement, but they help a little, and if we can get even a tiny bit of benefit out of them, it was obviously worth trying them.
Finally, our planes aimed to find better rear traction and it seems that we have obtained this result. This makes me satisfied and confident before going to Le Mans where traction will be very important. »
| Pos | Pile | Team | Best lap | difference | Tours | |||
| 1 | MARCHEZ, Marc | Repsol Honda Team | 1:39.313 | 11 / 91 | ||||
| 2 | LORENZO, Jorge | Yamaha Motor Racing | 1:39.332 | 0.019 | 26 / 59 | |||
| 3 | VIÑALES, Maverick | Team SUZUKI ECSTAR | 1:39.536 | 0.223 | 14 / 91 | |||
| 4 | Rossi, Valentine | Yamaha Motor Racing | 1:39.632 | 0.319 | 50 / 52 | |||
| 5 | PEDROSA, Dani | Repsol Honda Team | 1:39.646 | 0.333 | 65 / 76 | |||
| 6 | ESPARGARO, Aleix | Team SUZUKI ECSTAR | 1:39.682 | 0.369 | 8 / 71 | |||
| 7 | CRUTCHLOW, Cal | Honda LCR | 1:39.812 | 0.499 | 79 / 82 | |||
| 8 | IANNON, Andrew | Ducati Team | 1:39.879 | 0.566 | 10 / 55 | |||
| 9 | ESPARGARÓ, Pol | Monster Yamaha Tech 3 | 1:39.942 | 0.629 | 40 / 62 | |||
| 10 | DOVIZIOSO, Andrew | Ducati Team | 1:40.027 | 0.714 | 46 / 50 | |||
| 11 | SMITH, Bradley | Monster Yamaha Tech 3 | 1:40.335 | 1.022 | 70 / 71 | |||
| 12 | HERNANDEZ, Yonny | Aspar MotoGP Team | 1:40.351 | 1.038 | 83 / 83 | |||
| 13 | BRADL, Stefan | Aprilia Racing Team Gresini | 1:40.674 | 1.361 | 50 / 66 | |||
| 14 | MILLER, Jack | EG 0.0 Marc VDS | 1:40.681 | 1.368 | 5 / 65 | |||
| 15 | REDDING, Scott | Octo Bow Yakhnich | 1:40.844 | 1.531 | 20 / 59 | |||
| 16 | RABAT, Tito | EG 0.0 Marc VDS | 1:40.919 | 1.606 | 20 / 94 | |||
| 17 | BAUTISTA, Alvaro | Aprilia Racing Team Gresini | 1:40.960 | 1.647 | 29 / 62 | |||
| 18 | PIRRO, Michael | Octo Bow Yakhnich | 1:41.442 | 2.129 | 42 / 55 | |||
| 19 | LAVERTY, Eugene | Aspar MotoGP Team | 1:41.462 | 2.149 | 26 / 85 |
