Maverick Vinales – 2nd. Aleix Espargaró – 8th.
Team SUZUKI ECSTAR’s Maverick Viñales put together a sensational lap in the closing seconds of Q2 at the Gran Premio Movistar de Aragón MotoGP™ in Spain to take second position, as team-mate Aleix Espargaró finished eighth.
Viñales and Espargaró’s crews worked on revised settings on the GSX-RRs from data acquired yesterday at the Motorland Aragon circuit and were immediately on a better pace in this morning’s FP3, both riders qualifying directly to Q2. Viñales was third with a time of 1’48.052 and Espargaró fifth with a best-lap of 1’48.308 (0.242 and 0.498 respectively from Pole Position).
In the all-important 15-minute final Qualifying 2, Viñales waited until 30 seconds from the end of the session to set a blistering 1’47.748-second lap; by far his fastest of the weekend. Espargaró, who will line-up in the middle of Row 3 tomorrow, also improved his lap-time, setting a 1’48.230.
Davide Brivio – Team Manager:
“Today Maverick did a very good job ending up in second place and the first row for tomorrow’s race. This is very important and came thanks to an excellent performance. Also, Aleix could have been in a better position, but he couldn’t exploit the qualifying at its best and so this resulted in a third row position, but his pace is good and his performance has improved. For tomorrow’s race, Maverick will try to stay with the leaders while Aleix will have to recover. In FP4 they both did a really good job with many improvements and the pace is consistent and positive. As a team, we will try to find some further improvements in the set-up and exploit the potential for a good race.”
Maverick Viñales:
“Today we did a really good job, we improved since yesterday and also found an effective time attack that resulted in the second position. This morning, my team delivered me an improved machine that allowed me to enter the Q2 and then in the afternoon we really hit the good lap. We also worked on the pace in FP4 and I feel consistent and efficient, although I still feel we can find something to further improve. We will work on this, as tomorrow, the race will be very hard, so it’s important to try all we can to make a good race. Tyres will also be important; they will drop their performance a lot in the race so it will be important to be careful to preserve them.”
Aleix Espargaró:
“I’m really disappointed with the result in qualifying, as this morning we made important improvements from yesterday and I felt really confident, but finally in Q2 I couldn’t find the perfect lap. I made many mistakes in the time-attacks, didn’t feel completely confident with the rear tyre; and couldn’t find the most effective riding to attack. It’s a pity because after this morning I felt a lot better in my performance and potential, but the good thing is that we worked hard on the pace in FP4 and that side leaves me confident.”
GRAN PREMIO MOVISTAR DE ARAGÓN Q2 RESULTS:
1 Marc MARQUEZ - Repsol Honda Team - 1'47.117 2 Maverick VIÑALES - Team SUZUKI ECSTAR - 1'47.748 + 0.631 3 Jorge LORENZO - Movistar Yamaha MotoGP - 1'47.778 + 0.661 4 Andrea DOVIZIOSO - Ducati Team - 1'47.819 + 0.702 5 Cal CRUTCHLOW - LCR Honda - 1'47.843 + 0.726 6 Valentino ROSSI - Movistar Yamaha MotoGP - 1'47.951 + 0.834 7 Dani PEDROSA - Repsol Honda Team - 1'48.017 + 0.900 8 Aleix ESPARGARO - Team SUZUKI ECSTAR - 1'48.230 + 1.113 9 Danilo PETRUCCI - OCTO Pramac Yakhnich - 1'48.236 + 1.119 10 Scott REDDING - OCTO Pramac Yakhnich - 1'48.242 + 1.125
