Maverick Viñales – 3rd. Aleix Espargaró – 11th.
Team SUZUKI ECSTAR’s Maverick Viñales battled treacherous wet weather conditions to put his GSX-RR onto the front row of the grid in today’s Octo British GP at Silverstone while team-mate Aleix Espargaró will start from row four.
Both riders qualified directly to Q2 from FP3 this morning’s drier session, Viñales scoring second position just 0.003 from fastest and Espargaró in ninth. But conditions worsened during the afternoon. The expected rain finally arrived and the team reacted as planned. FP4 proved to be a hard session for both riders, struggling to find a good feeling and lap with consistent and fast times.
The modifications applied for the Qualifying, and with the track becoming more consistent in grip, helped Viñales to score his third front-row start of the season.
Davide Brivio – Team Manager:
“It’s been a great performance from Maverick in the wet, where we recently have been struggling. After a very good weekend on the dry when he has been consistently fast, when the rain came in FP4 he initially struggled but finally the team did a great job changing some set-up and he was able to also be fast in the wet, and so qualifying on the first row. It’s a great result that I think he could have achieved in the dry as well. For this we are double happy as the rain didn’t ruin our plans. Unfortunately, plans were ruined by the rain for Aleix, it’s a pity because this morning in dry conditions, he could be very fast; probably Maverick and him were the fastest in terms of pace. He struggled for the qualifying and so his position on the grid is not so positive, he’ll have to fight hard and recover in the race tomorrow, but if it’s going to be a sunny day I think he could also be very competitive.”
Maverick Viñales:
“The session today was really difficult, in FP4 when rain came I really couldn’t find any feeling with the bike, the track was so slippery and I was very worried. Luckily my team did a great job, I must be grateful to them because they changed the set-up and the electronics for the Q2 and the machine resulted to be much more easy to ride. We have also struggled a lot in the wet, while now finally all in a sudden we are there and competitive with the others. The position looks good for a positive race, either in sun and rain.”
Aleix Espargaró:
“The morning was very good with the tyre for the race, the hard one, as Maverick and myself have been the only riders to ride consistently in the 2’01s. Unfortunately, the qualifying was not good, I struggled a lot with the rain both in FP4 and in Q2, the feeling with the rear end was not good at all and couldn’t find the needed confidence. I hope that tomorrow the weather forecasts are right and we’ll get a dry race, as in those conditions, I feel very competitive.”
OCTO BRITISH GRAND PRIX Q2 RESULT:
1 Cal CRUTCHLOW - LCR Honda - 2'19.265 2 Valentino ROSSI - Movistar Yamaha MotoGP - 2'20.263 + 0.998 3 Maverick VIÑALES - Team SUZUKI ECSTAR - 2'20.514 + 1.249 4 Dani PEDROSA - Repsol Honda Team - 2'20.742 + 1.477 5 Marc MARQUEZ - Repsol Honda Team - 2'20.779 + 1.514 6 Eugene LAVERTY - Pull & Bear Aspar Team - 2'20.821 + 1.556 7 Scott REDDING - OCTO Pramac Yakhnich - 2'21.074 + 1.809 8 Andrea IANNONE - Ducati Team - 2'21.446 + 2.181 9 Jorge LORENZO - Movistar Yamaha MotoGP - 2'21.687 + 2.422 10 Andrea DOVIZIOSO - Ducati Team - 2'22.420 + 3.155 11 Aleix ESPARGARO - Team SUZUKI ECSTAR - 2'25.285 + 6.020
