Team Suzuki Press Office – September 18.
Combined practice times:
Joan Mir: 7th – 1’31.926 (+ 0.298)
Alex Rins: 18th – 1’32.407 (+ 0.779)
The MotoGP paddock resumed track action on Friday in Misano for the Emilia Romagna GP, just days after an official test at the circuit, for the second of two back-to-back rounds at the Misano World Circuit Marco Simoncelli.
Joan Mir, fresh from his impressive podium last Sunday, was quick out of the blocks for FP1 as he set some strong lap times from his first run onwards. Feeling comfortable and confident with his GSX-RR, he proceeded to work on a few different settings and tyre options to fine-tune his set-up ahead of the GP. Mir headed to the top of the timesheets with six minutes left in the session, and closed FP1 in fourth, having topped Sector 4. In FP2 he held a spot in the Top 3 for the majority of the session and grabbed a provisional place in Q2 with seventh place on combined times.
FP1 proved a tough session for Alex Rins as he suffered a big moment onboard his GSX-RR, which he managed to save. After returning to the pits and heading out again, he had a small crash on the front end. Despite this, he managed to recapture a good feeling with his GSX-RR and he is working hard towards tomorrow’s qualifying. FP2 saw incredibly tight times with the Top 5 riders covered by less than a tenth of a second, and Rins closed the session in 17th place.
Davide Brivio – Team Manager:
“We’ve been keeping working today. Joan had good pace from the start trying different tyres options, and we continued to work on settings with him. Alex also was trying different tyre options and at the end he could find a good combination with good pace. Friday is the day for working on all these things, so at the moment we’re happy with how the day has gone and we’re looking forward to qualifying tomorrow. As we suspected, it’s much more competitive between all the riders this weekend because everyone has one race in the bag already and also a test. But our level was high last weekend, and we’ll try to do well again.”
Joan Mir:
“We tried each rear tyre option today, which gave us good information. The sessions were very competitive today with very close times, and even though everyone has improved since last weekend, we feel that we have taken a step forward too. We’re ready to fight again at the front, so tomorrow we’ll try to improve a few more things and we’ll aim to get a good qualifying position. Let’s see what’s possible!”
Alex Rins:
“Today has been a bit difficult for me. During the test on Tuesday I was able to keep a good performance even on used tyres, but today I didn’t capture that same feeling. Finally towards the end of FP2 I started to feel good again and that gives me confidence for race day. This morning in FP1 I had a very big moment, and a big save, and after that I also had a little crash. This didn’t impact my work too much and I’m still focused on tomorrow’s qualifying and Sunday’s race.”
GP TISSOT DELL’EMILIA ROMAGNA E RIVIERA DI RIMINI – Combined Classification after DAY1:
1. B. BINDER – Red Bull KTM Factory Racing – 01:31.628
2. T. NAKAGAMI – LCR Honda IDEMITSU – 01:31.630 – +0.002
3. F. QUARTARARO – Petronas Yamaha SRT – 01:31.644 – +0.016
4. M. VIÑALES – Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP – 01:31.669 – +0.041
5. P. ESPARGARO – Red Bull KTM Factory Racing – 01:31.699 – +0.071
6. F. MORBIDELLI – Petronas Yamaha SRT – 01:31.811 – +0.090
7. J. MIR – Team SUZUKI ECSTAR – 01:31.926 – +0.205
8. M. OLIVEIRA – Red Bull KTM Tech 3 – 01:31.965 – +0.244
9. D. PETRUCCI – Ducati Team – 01:31.973 – +0.345
10. J. ZARCO – Esponsorama Racing – 01:32.072 – +0.444
11. F. BAGNAIA – Pramac Racing – 01:32.138 – +0.510
12. A. DOVIZIOSO – Ducati Team – 01:32.152 – +0.431
13. A. ESPARGARO – Aprilia Racing Team Gresini – 01:32.185 – +0.464
14. I. LECUONA – Red Bull KTM Tech 3 – 01:32.238 – +0.610
15. V. ROSSI – Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP – 01:32.263 – +0.635
16. J. MILLER – Pramac Racing – 01:32.279 – +0.651
17. A. MARQUEZ – Repsol Honda Team – 01:32.369 – +0.741
18. A. RINS – Team SUZUKI ECSTAR – 01:32.407 – +0.779
19. T. RABAT – Esponsorama Racing – 01:32.788 – +1.160
20. B. SMITH – Aprilia Racing Team Gresini – 01:32.916 – +1.288
21. S. BRADL – Repsol Honda Team – 01:33.384 – +1.663
