The first race back after the short summer break provided plenty of tension for the 95,000 fans present at Brno; the hot Czech track was surrounded by clouds and storms just moments before the start of the race, Team SUZUKI ECSTAR’s three riders had to reconsider their tyre choices ahead of the 21 lap race. Andrea Iannone and Sylvain Guintoli stuck to the hard-hard combination, while Alex Rins opted for the medium front and hard rear.

Iannone and Rins made good starts from their third row grid spots, with the Italian quickly slotting into the lead group with 6th place. Rins was not far behind, and the pairing were solidly in the Top 10 with a view to progressing. But as the tough race wore on they found themselves defending. With just three laps to go they conceded a couple of places and brought their GSX-RRs home in 10th and 11th respectively, collecting decent points after the disappointment of Sachsenring. Sylvain Guintoli, riding with broken ribs, started well in 16th and finished the race in 19th place.

Tomorrow the team will take to the track again for an official test.


Ken Kawauchi - Technical Manager

“It was a pity as the race was different to our expectations after the good performances of yesterday. Today our performance was also not so bad, the gap was very small, but in a race like this a small gap turns into this result. Despite a lot of help from our Test Rider, Sylvain, we couldn’t get the finish that we wanted. Tomorrow we have one day of testing where we’ll try to improve some things for the next race.”

Davide Brivio - Team Manager

“To be honest we expected more from this race because during the practice on Friday and Saturday we had good pace. We thought we could go faster, but during the race we couldn’t really keep the pace of the top group. Starting from the third row means it’s not easy to stay at the front, and then we were not able to recover. It’s not what we wanted but we’ll move forward, the next race will not be easy for us but we’re always trying to improve. Anyway, all three riders finished the race and with Andrea and Alex we’ve scored some useful points. I would like also to thank Sylvain for tracking in a painful condition. He had a good weekend and it seems he enjoyed also. Tomorrow we’ll do some testing and try to fully understand everything from today, as well as testing some new parts for the rest of the season and also for next year.”

Andrea Iannone

“For sure I expected more from this race, but in any case I tried my best. I pushed from the beginning at 100% and I remained pushing until the end of the race, so it’s difficult for us. I hope we’ll have a bit more potential in the next races and we’ll remain a bit closer from the second half of the race until the end. This is the most important thing to focus on because we’re losing out in the second part of the races and struggle on the acceleration points with spinning. We have good potential but not in every area yet, tomorrow we’ll work on some things during the test.”

Alex Rins

“It was a really hard race, and very long. We struggled on corner exit, with a lack of traction. Tomorrow we’ll work hard to try and improve this problem so that next time we can be with the front group. Sincerely, I hoped this race would not be so hard and that I could stay with the group more easily, but it was hard to overtake. The last six laps were very difficult. We’ll try to find the solutions so that we can bring the bike back on the podium in the next races.”

Sylvain Guintoli

“The race was really difficult. I knew it was going to be tough as I’ve ridden with injuries in the past, but this is quite bad and has been getting worse through the weekend. The Clinica Mobile helped me to try and take the edge off the pain. But it was still painful handling ‘the beast’ for 21 laps! It was a long race, I tried to get myself within 40 seconds of the leader and we weren’t far off. I wanted to finish the race and I’m happy because I got that job done. Grip was tricky during the race with the heat, and hopefully we can work on this tomorrow.”