It is the 13th race of the season and Team SUZUKI ECSTAR return to Italy for the Grand Prix of Misano and the Rimini Riviera. The lovely and warm location on the seaside will greet Andrea Iannone and Alex Rins for the penultimate round before their departure overseas.
Alex Rins is arriving to the Italian Riviera in positive mood after the fine performance he had in Silverstone. Not only was he able to have a positive race with solid, fast pace, but his improvements throughout the whole weekend have been consistent. His capacity to learn very quickly and adapt to the MotoGP class is remarkable.
For Andrea Iannone this will be a sort of “home grand prix.” His hometown Vasto is only a couple of hours away from the Marco Simoncelli Misano World Circuit. The improvements made to the setup after the Brno test are paying off, and although the results of last race were below expectations, the progress made give high hopes to the Italian for a positive race in Italy.
The circuit is still 4.2km (2.63 miles) long, with six left-hand corners and 10 right-hand, with the longest straight being 565m (1853.67 ft) in length. The surface itself is fairly flat, without elevation changes, allowing fans to get the best view of the track action. In fact, the track is well-known for having a great atmosphere. Close to the city of Rimini, the Misano Adriatico circuit was constructed in 1972 and has since undergone an array of modifications. A fixture of the Italian Grand Prixs throughout the 80´s and early 90´s, Misano returned to the MotoGP calendar in 2007.
Davide Brivio – Team Manager
“We arrive in Misano with hope and will to continue to improve. In the last three races, we’ve made small steps ahead, especially with Alex, therefore we will try to continue this positive path also in Misano. With Andrea as well, we made some improvements in the practice sessions and we now need to seize on these improvements also for the race. The approach to the weekend will be a tough one for us, as we are the only team who couldn’t make any tests here before the race. We will try to make the most of Friday and Saturday. Little by little we are improving consistently, I hope Misano will be another step in our path to growth and get even better performances until the end.”
Alex Rins
"In Silverstone we succeeded in completing a positive weekend. We were able to set a good pace from the first practice session, which is crucial in this category. We were also very close to getting direct access to Q2 and the pace in the race was consistent and fast. These are positive things that help me gain more and more confidence and to head to Misano with a good attitude. The Misano circuit is one I’ve always liked, and we will try to have the same approach, with effective settings from the beginning and then improving step by step. I’m confident I will be able to learn more and more, as well as gain a greater understanding of my GSX-RR and the strategies, which are a crucial issue in this category.”
Andrea Iannone
“I hope that since Misano is my home race I will be able to make it a good one this year. So far the results have been below my expectations. I hope I’ll be able to have a better understanding of the situation and to react in the shortest time possible. In Silverstone’s race I struggled as well; I didn´t feel very confident in race, but it’s strange because in practice we had some important improvements and I felt better with the GSX-RR. We must capitalize more on the improvements we make and to show them in the races. Let’s start back to Misano with a better understanding, and find more competitiveness, with the hope of getting better results.”
HIGH HOPES FOR IANNONE AND RINS IN THE MISANO GRAND
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