The MotoGP medical team has declared Marc Marquez (Repsol Honda), Cal Crutchlow (LCR Honda) and Alex Rins (Team Suzuki Ecstar) all fit to race this weekend for the Andalucía GP in Jerez, Spain. While normal mortals would’ve taken weeks to recover even remotely, these riders prove that MotoGP riders are a different hybrid of ‘superhumans’. (more…)
Team Suzuki Ecstar of MotoGP has confirmed their riders’ line-up until the end of the 2022 season as they inked a new contract with their young Spanish star, Joan Mir. This was done shortly after the Japanese manufacturer struck a similar deal with its ‘senior’ rider, Alex Rins just a few days back. (more…)
MotoGP 2020 has not even started yet (due to all the cancellations and postponements announced due to the COVID-19 pandemic) and Alex Rins has already signed a new deal with Team Suzuki Ecstar which will see them racing together until the end of the 2022 season. (more…)
Suzuki is celebrating its official 100th anniversary this year and to kick things off, they’ve unveiled their latest 2020 Suzuki GSX-R1000R offering with MotoGP livery taken from their motorsports racing effort, Team Suzuki Ecstar. (more…)
Team Suzuki Ecstar has launched the 2019 Suzuki GSX-RR for the MotoGP 2019 season.
Unlike other teams, Suzuki chose to unveil their bikes through a video on YouTube, instead of a “live” launch event. The team unveiled their all-Spanish rider line-up last season. Three-year factory veteran Alex Rins is joined by newcomer Joan Mir. The latter replaces Andrea Iannone who left for Aprilia. Sylvain Guintoli continues his role as test rider for Suzuki.
Alex Rins finished in second place in the last three rounds of 2018 and hopes to move up to the front step in 2019. Suzuki last won a race with Maverik Vinalez in 2016.
“After the last test in November I left clear feedback for the engineers to work on, as far as I know the improvements we will try in Sepang will not be drastic but many small improvements in many areas, which is totally the Suzuki philosophy. We know what we were missing on the bike, so I believe the R&D in Japan will deliver a package which will help us to improve further,” said Rins.
Joan Mir made his first Moto3 appearance in 2015 to replace the injured Hiroki Ono. He crashed out after making contact with John McPhee. Mir came back as a full rider in 2016 and finished 5thoverall. In 2017, he dominated the series with 10 wins and a 91 point advantage over his closest rival. Pundits felt that he could be the next Valentino Rossi or Marc Marquez.
He moved to the EG 0,0 Marc VDS team in Moto2 in 2018 where he captured 4 podiums and finished the season in 6th.
“Of course I still need many more hours on the bike, there are so many things I still need to understand to be even more effective, but I feel very supported by the team and I will rely on their wealth of experience to improve, and also to contribute my own improvements to my bike,” he said.
The 2019 bike follows the basic shape of the 2018 model with some visible but small modifications.
Those are differences we could see, but the team’s Technical Manager Ken Kawauchi said that the factory has developed a new engine, chassis, besides improvements in the electronics and fairing. He also added that Suzuki’s approach to the MotoGP project is by taking step-by-step improvements rather than redesigning something completely new all the time.
That last statement proves how important it is for the riders to start off their new season with something familiar yet improved, instead of riding something which completely alien to them. It helps the rider to familiarize himself to the bike quicker and hopefully translate to great results from the beginning.
All pictures from Suzuki and MotoGP
Alex Rins’s Suzuki may have caught fire yesterday at the Shell Malaysia MotoGP 2018 but that was clearly not a hindrance.
Rins his bike to the fastest time after FP2 (Free Practice 2) by dipping under the 2:00.00 mark. He posted 1:59.608, a mere 0.089 second faster than Andrea Dovizioso of Ducati MotoGP Team and 0.093 second ahead of Marc Marquez of Repsol Honda Team.
The MotoGP field was lucky to escape a huge deluge in the latter part of the afternoon, allowing the riders to post good times in both FP1 and FP2. Indeed, Dovizioso has recorded his best lap in the first session.
The newly-crowned MotoGP World Champion Marquez had a mad day after saving his Honda many times from crashing.
Valentino Rossi rode his improved Yamaha YZR-M1 to fourth fastest, only 0.159 second from Rins. The Italian’s placing meant that there are four manufacturers in the top four spots. Rossi’s fastest 1’59.767 time was inherited from FP1 where he actually finished second fastest.
Behind Rossi, Jack Miller was the first rider to dip below the 2:00.00 mark. The Australian posted grabbed the fifth spot after putting in a 1’59.771 lap in FP2.
Finally, Rossi’s teammate, Maverick Vinalez improved on his FP1 time to set 1’59.802 for sixth.
The Top 6 covered by less than 1 second, as a result.
Hafizh Syahrin seemed to have a challenging day. He was in 17th in FP1 and 20th in FP2. The Malaysian is hoping to improve on his standings in the Rookie’s category.
FP3 tomorrow will provide the riders their last chance to improve on their times and the Top 10 will qualify automatically for Q2 (Qualifying 2). The remaining riders will start in Q1 and the top 2 from that session will be bumped up to Q2 to qualify for grid spots 1st through 12th.
So, yes, the Free Practice sessions are just important as final qualifying.
Those of us who were fortunate enough to watch the Motul TT Assen MotoGP round last night can agree with one thing; the battles were incredible! Almost ten riders were fighting in the front group for podium contention which ended in Repsol Honda’s Marc Marquez winning the epic race. (more…)
It has been quite a turbulent MotoGP silly season with a number of high profile jumps. From Jorge Lorenzo signing with Honda to Andrea Iannone getting an Aprilia seat, the next hot piece of news confirms Moto2’s Joan Mir moving up to Team Suzuki Ecstar for the next two seasons. (more…)
MotoGP rider Andrea Iannone has confirmed that he’ll be leaving the Suzuki factory team (Team Suzuki Ecstar) at the end of the season. Despite giving the Hamamatsu factory their first ever back-to-back podium finishes since their return to the premier class, it seems that both parties have made up their minds. (more…)
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