IANNONE AND RINS REACT AS THE BAR IS RAISED

Alex Rins: 6th - 1:59.348 (+ 0.518)
Andrea Iannone: 12th - 1:59.615 (+ 0.785)
Sylvain Guintoli: 22nd - 2:01.120 (+ 2.290)

• Alex Rins shows strong and consistent pace both on individual laps and during a race simulation.

• Whilst Andrea Iannone waits to confirm his final configuration.

• Another productive and action-packed day for Team SUZUKI ECSTAR.

The third and final day of testing saw extreme heat and humidity once again, forcing the riders to use their time carefully. Taking to the track as soon as it opened allowed them to put in many laps in the morning before the heat became too intense. They then had to take a longer break in the afternoon, only rejoining the track once the temperature had dropped off.

Despite these difficulties the team were able to glean more useful information in regard to both the engine specification and chassis configuration, as well as testing other new parts in areas such as suspension.

As more and more riders pushed during the morning, the pace began to heat up, this saw some very fast lap times being set and the Team SUZUKI ECSTAR riders responded with a strong pace of their own, setting their fastest laps of the 3-day test.

Alex Rins used the morning session to focus on long runs, where he found a good and consistent pace. He reported a boost in confidence as his experience of the bike increased, and as he tried new parts and a different engine configuration which suited him well, and also improved acceleration and performance. Overall the Spaniard enjoyed a positive final day, closing the session in an impressive 6th place, just half a second from the fastest lap time, and +0.002 behind 5th place.

Andrea Iannone instead focused on the important process of trying to find his final preferences, and he completed a total of 62 laps despite the weather conditions. He found the final day to be useful as he tried several different settings and configurations.

Test riders Sylvain Guintoli and Takuya Tsuda continued to try different parts in order to offer their valuable feedback on various options and packages.

Ken Kawauchi - Technical Manager
“In these three days we did so much testing, we had many items to test and we could make back-to-back comparisons with all the riders. My thanks to the crew and all the riders for their intense work. Today Alex improved his lap time and did well in the classification, but also did a sort of race simulation which marked a fast pace. This makes us happy because it means the direction is the correct one. Andrea worked hard but he is still looking for the final opinion on which of the options he prefers, but this doesn’t worry us as it is a normal development process and it is important for us that he makes the choice when he is 100% confident. We will continue this process in Thailand and Qatar, in order to finalise the final package for the debut in the Qatar race.”

Davide Brivio - Team Manager
“We finish this first test of the season - these three days, and we are quite happy because we were able to test a few things and try to get a clear picture of everything. We didn’t finish the job, in fact the next tests in Buriram and Qatar will also be very important. We are working on engine specs and chassis configuration with both riders and the target is to decide on the best package to start the season with. Alex put in good and consistent laps, and Andrea also was not far off, so they did a good job. And we can say that it has been three positive days.”

Alex Rins
“I’m really happy because we finish these three days after a lot of work and it was very productive, today has been great. We tried many things during the three days and one of them was the engine and I think we improved in acceleration and top speed. There were also more things that we tried which were positive. We tried a race simulation and it went well, good race pace, and this is important not only for confidence but for giving good feedback to Japan about their work. We tried new forks and they were also good and we worked in the electronics area as well.”

Andrea Iannone
“Today as well has been a constructive day where we worked step by step with further comparisons and analysis. We’re still missing some information before being able to define a final package, this is a very important moment as we are setting up the development for the future so we need to make sure we take the right choices. The items we had to test were various and we could compare with the feeling we had also in the test last year, to have a comparison with tracks that are very different is useful to put together a package that can help us to be competitive for the whole championship.”

Info.
Circuit: Sepang International Circuit, Malaysia.
Air temperature: 37c
Track temperature: 47c
Humidity: 70%

SEPANG TEST - Classification after Day 3:
1. LORENZO, Jorge - Ducati Team 1:58.830
2. PEDROSA, Dani - Repsol Honda Team 1:59.009 0.179
3. CRUTCHLOW, Cal - LCR Honda CASTROL 1:59.052 0.222
4. DOVIZIOSO, Andrea - Ducati Team 1:59.169 0.339
5. MILLER, Jack - Alma Pramac Racing 1:59.346 0.516
6. RINS, Alex - Team SUZUKI ECSTAR 1:59.348 0.518
7. MARQUEZ, Marc - Repsol Honda Team 1:59.382 0.552
8. ROSSI, Valentino - Movistar Yamaha MotoGP 1:59.449 0.619
9. ZARCO, Johann - Monster Yamaha Tech 3 1:59.511 0.681
10. PETRUCCI, Danilo - Alma Pramac Racing 1:59.528 0.698
11. RABAT, Tito - Reale Avintia Racing 1:59.547 0.717
12. IANNONE, Andrea - Team SUZUKI ECSTAR 1:59.615 0.785
13. ESPARGARO, Aleix - Aprilia Racing Team Gresini 1:59.962 1.132
14. NAKAGAMI, Takaaki - LCR Honda IDEMITSU 2:00.071 1.241
15. BAUTISTA, Alvaro - Ángel Nieto Team 2:00.205 1.375
16. KALLIO, Mika - KTM Test Team 2:00.464 1.634
17. MORBIDELLI, Franco - EG 0,0 Marc VDS 2:00.526 1.696
18. VIÑALES, Maverick - Movistar Yamaha MotoGP 2:00.547 1.717
19. ABRAHAM, Karel - Ángel Nieto Team 2:00.574 1.744
20. SIMEON, Xavier - Reale Avintia Racing 2:00.784 1.954
21. REDDING, Scott - Aprilia Racing Team Gresini 2:00.812 1.982
22. SMITH, Bradley - Red Bull KTM Factory Racing 2:00.969 2.139
23. GUINTOLI, Sylvain - Suzuki Test Team 2:01.120 2.290
24. LUTHI, Thomas - EG 0,0 Marc VDS 2:01.126 2.296
25. HERNANDEZ, Yonny - Monster Yamaha Tech 3 2:01.223 2.393
26. TEST3, Yamaha - Yamaha Test Team 2:01.385 2.555
27. TEST2, Yamaha - Yamaha Test Team 2:01.679 2.849
NC. TEST1, Yamaha - Yamaha Test Team
NC. ESPARGARO, Pol - Red Bull KTM Factory Racing
NC. PIRRO, Michele - Ducati Test Team