Team Suzuki Press Office – June 12.
Straight after the rolling green hills of Mugello, Team SUZUKI ECSTAR move to another historic and fascinating circuit; Montmelò. The track near Barcelona will, as always, host the Gran Premi of Catalunya, which is the seventh round of the Championship.
Alex Rins is approaching this Catalan GP with the desire to erase the memory of last year’s unlucky race, where he retired through technical issues. The solid performance he put in last time out at the Italian GP will be the benchmark to build on another positive weekend, especially as the two tracks have some similarities.
With important points finally scored in Italy, Joan Mir is counting on this positive step to bring him another good result in Catalunya. His priority is to gain more and more confidence in order to bring himself ever closer to the top. The young rookie is relying on the positive working method that he has built with his crew.
A third rider will be battling for Suzuki this weekend, as Sylvain Guintoli rejoins the Team as a Wild Card entry. As our official Test Rider his priority will be to put the GSX-RR through its paces over the race weekend and give further feedback to the engineers.
Davide Brivio – Team Manager
“Mugello was a track that we felt trepidation towards, given that the layout is a hard one for our machine’s characteristics, but finally we managed the situation very well and we had a good race with both Alex and Joan. With Alex in the fight for the podium once again, and Joan taking some useful points. This gives us positivity heading into Barcelona, especially as the two circuits are quite similar in some aspects such as the long straight. However, the Montmelò layout also has some very flowing corners, which suits our GSX-RR even more. I believe we can start the weekend with confidence and fight for a good race.”
Alex Rins
“I’m very curious to go to Montmelò because in some ways the circuit is kind of similar to Mugello, and it has parts which could suit our GSX-RR, so I’m arriving here with confidence. In Italy we proved that we can be effective in preparing a good setup for that kind of layout, so I think we are heading for a positive race. Things are going well at the moment, our progression and results are good, and we have clear ideas where we have to improve. I’m happy and excited to come to my home race.”
Joan Mir
“Finally in Mugello I was able to take the chequered flag and grab some points. I hope this will be the start of a positive run for me. Our initial goal this season was for me to gain experience and continue step-by-step in trying to close the gap with the fastest guys, I still have a lot more to improve on and I aim to do this steadily. The Montmelò circuit is a nice layout, which also gives me hope for a good result. I hope we can continue to progress and finish the race in strong position in front of the Spanish fans.”
Sylvain Guintoli
“The development is going very well with the Suzuki Test Team, and this weekend I will also get the pleasure and thrill of racing in MotoGP again as a Wild Card. It has been a while since my last race, so I am very much looking forward to joining Alex and Joan on the grid. Forza Suzuki!”
TECHNICAL HIGHLIGHTS OF MUGELLO CIRCUIT
Manuel Cazeaux – Alex Rins’ Crew Chief: “In Montmelò it’s important to find a compromise in the set-up because you have both slow and fast corners; you can’t have an ‘extreme’ bike at this circuit, you need a very balanced set-up. Suspension settings are very important because there are many long corners which the riders accelerate hard out of, so it’s easy to slide the rear and that means tyre consumption is high. With good settings you can try to achieve the maximum grip and limit tyre consumption.”
