The second day of testing for the Suzuki Ecstar Moto GP team may not produced any blistering lap times, however their time spent on day two at the Losail International Circuit in Qatar gave the team's two riders and engineers the chance to try several different solutions and gather important information.
Andrea Iannone and Alex Rins worked intensively to explore different configurations that could allow them to find a positive performance towards the race.
Iannone's focus stayed fixed on developing the set-up and electronic configuration, the sort of low-profile job that hopefully will pay back as preparation for the race.
He is still encountering a lack of sensitivity with the front end, which has been investigated by the team and is still under evaluation in order to find some solutions.
“Despite the position in the classification, we can be positive, especially if thinking forward to the race,” Iannone said. “We have made some important improvements compared to yesterday, but these are mainly on the pace. Indeed, I was able to do all my best laps with worn tyres, which is a good sign for the consistency, but I'm still struggling with the single lap efficiency.”
“When I put on a new tyre for some reason, I cannot be as effective as I'd like, and this prevents me from doing a very fast time attack. For example, in the last attempts I'd been as fast as some top riders until T3, but then in the last sector I lost nearly 0.5s from my own best time. This is because I feel a lack of confidence with the front of the bike and so I cannot be effective in the last corners of the fourth sector.”
“We have a lot of grip at the rear, which consequently pushes a lot to the front. We are working on this, but it's a job that requires much patience and many attempts to find the effective compromise. I'm confident we will be able to make some improvements tomorrow.”
