You are here

MotoGP, Iannone: "I just need to adapt the Suzuki to my style"

The Maniac gives the first day of testing passing marks, Rins: "I am feeling more and more confident and I was able to find a good setup"

Iannone: "I just need to adapt the Suzuki to my style"

Share


Andrea Iannone is gaining more and more confidence astride his Suzuki. The fifth-best time at the end of the day is satisfactory for the rider from Vasto, just eight tenths of a second behind the leader. As far as he is concerned, the road to follow has already been defined, but his work has only just begun.

“Compared with Valencia, not much has changed with the bike’s settings. We worked on a few components in order to adapt the Suzuki to my riding style.”

You were able to do some comparative work.

“I found two very similar bikes. There is nothing different about them. I tried to figure out which was better in order to head down the right path. There is no rush, but it is important to work on the settings since from Valencia to today we have not changed even one screw. We will most likely need to make some changes in the coming days.”

You showed that you are fast.

“As I said, I feel comfortable. I am doing some good times quite easily. Among other things, we have also been competitive in terms of pace, using only one new tyre. Plus, even with used tyres, we have been competitive. We have some new things to test, but at the moment we have not needed them.”

Do you need something more in terms of the chassis architecture or the engine?

“We have a good base both in terms of engine and chassis architecture. I just need to adapt the bike to my characteristics.

What feedback have you had from the tyres?

“Here the tyres are different than in Valencia. For the moment I have not found any type of problem.”  

We also saw Alex Rins again at Sepang. His crash on the Ricardo Tormo is by now a distant memory for the Spaniard, forced, however, to settle for a gap from the leader of more than two seconds at the end of the day.

"I feel quite good on the bike. I think there has been a step forward since Valencia and now I am gaining more and more confidence. I think it is a great feeling after the winter, although I am still not at 100% fitness. In any case, I have prepared well and I am recovering.”

How would you rate the day today?

“Confidence is growing and that is more motivation to improve. We found a good setup for the bike, also beginning to work on development.”

What did you focus on for this Monday session?

“The work today focused primarily on finding the setup, using the references from the 2016 GSX-RR. This way, when we use the new material tomorrow, I will be able to compare the data with the team.”

Translated by Jonathan Blosser
__

Related articles