Andrea Iannone and Alex Rins were keen and ready to make up positions from their 8th and 11th grid positions respectively, and as the lights went out they hoped to bring the strong and promising race pace shown throughout the weekend in Germany. But at Turn 3 on Lap 1 Team SUZUKI ECSTAR’s riders were victims of a very costly error by another rider; Iannone was struck and forced wide, and Rins taken down and into the gravel trap. The race was over for a bitterly disappointed Alex, who was thankfully uninjured, while Andrea was able to keep going despite considerable damage sustained to the rear of his GSX-RR. The Italian worked his way up from the back of the field to take 12th place and valuable championship points.

Ken Kawauchi - Technical Manager

“Today for us, after the first lap, everything was already finished. The accident caused by another rider included both our riders and it ended Alex’s race and made it very hard for Andrea. It was key that Andrea didn’t give up, and he tried to recover as many positions as possible, but we all know how difficult the Sachsenring is for overtaking. It was a real pity because we had very good race pace and we expected a better day. After this two week break we will come back stronger.”

Davide Brivio - Team Manager

“It’s sad when the day is negative and it’s not your fault. Unfortunately there was the accident at Turns 2 and 3, which took both Alex and Andrea in one shot the first crashed and the latter had to continue from very far back, and our race from that moment was extremely compromised. Andrea tried to recover as much as he could and he got to 12th position, which was good in a race where it was not easy to recover due to tyre management. Anyway, everything that happened today was of a consequence of this early incident, it’s sad and shouldn’t really happen at track like Sachsenring where everybody knows it’s very tight.”

Andrea Iannone

“The race was over for me at Turn 3. I think Pol Espargarò should have thought a bit more about what he was doing, because there isn’t space at that corner and he was completely on the kerb - there wasn’t a line there. I heard the bike behind me and I started to pick my bike up a bit because I expected there could be contact, that manoeuvre prevented me from crashing but my bike was damaged and I lost more than 10 places. I tried my best but it was difficult to make up positions. My lap time was not bad, I could have been in the top 5 to top 8 places. I understand that everyone wants to push hard in the early laps, but it’s more dangerous than ever in MotoGP now and people must be careful. I have shown good pace in the last few races and I’m waiting to continue this good form in Brno.”

Alex Rins

“I was on my line, and it was very strange because when I changed direction to enter Turn 3 I found Pol was on the inside line, on the kerb. He touched Andrea and then he crashed and I went with him because there was no space to avoid it. I’m really sad because we worked very hard with the team all weekend and it’s disappointing to finish like this. This season has been going very well, despite the crashes in the early part of the year. We’ve been fighting a lot with the lead group and it’s nice for me and for all the team. We’re looking forward to coming back after the summer break.”