Suzuki Enjoy Strong Weekend Down Under
- Oct 20, 2015
- 2 min read
Suzuki enjoyed their best weekend since early season after both riders finished sixth and ninth respectively as they battled the much faster bikes around them.
Maverick Vinales put in a stunning lap in qualifying to go sixth quickest with a 1:28.932, the Spaniard letting his talent shine through at a track that highlights rider skill. Team-mate Aleix Espargaro was just 0.001s off of Valentino Rossi's time in qualifying and started eighth.
Both made excellent starts and were running right with the leaders in the opening handful of laps. As the pace of the top four guys increased, the GSX-RR duo dropped back with Dani Pedrosa and Cal Crutchlow.
Though both were struggling for acceleration and power down the Gardner Straight, they were able to put the strength of their chassis to good use and keep the two Hondas in check around the rest of the lap.
Espargaro's rear tyre began to fade and he started suffering from wheel-spin, which saw him fall off of the battle for fifth and into the clutches of his brother Pol. The Tech 3 Yamaha found his way past fairly easily and Aeix had to settle for ninth.
Vinales found his way past Crutchlow's LCR RC213V, but couldn't get past Pedrosa and crossed the line sixth.
Vinales:
“Today I enjoyed it a lot; it's one of the races where I had the most fun. It is the first track where I could feel that I am very competitive and the first where I felt the bike is very close to the top. We still lack something with the power but we could compensate with excellent performance from the chassis, meaning we were very competitive in many sectors. We did a really good job on the set-up, also myself I felt more calm and focused. We made a good step up in improvement after Aragon and another after Japan, which makes me feel confident. Finally I ended 6.8s from the winner, so this makes me very happy.”
Espargaro:
“This was a tough race, I had a good start and I could perform well during the early laps, keeping in touch with the leading group. Unfortunately, after five or six laps, the rear tyre dropped in performance and I had many struggles with wheel-spinning, preventing my bike from accelerating properly. It is a pity because, overall, the weekend was positive for us, we made many improvements after Japan and I hoped to able to fight higher in the classification. Anyway it is also important that we found some new solutions and we will continue with this approach.”
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