MotoGP: Disaster in the wet for Suzuki

This year’s Dutch TT turned into a complete disaster for the factory Suzuki team of Maverick Viñales and Aleix Espargaró, after a lack of time to work on a wet weather setting left the duo chasing their tails during Sunday’s race.

Coming as only the second outing of the season in fully wet conditions, the two Spaniards were left struggling to come to grips with the control electronics and how to use it to get the best out of their GSX-RRs, as Viñales admitted afterwards.

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“We were pretty competitive in the dry, but when rain arrived we couldn’t find a proper set-up to have a machine that could make me comfortable. I suffered a lot during both legs of the race, and I’m sad for this because I felt we could have had a good chance in the dry.

“Unfortunately, we still have a lot to learn and grow when we are in rain conditions, we are all learning, but for sure this result is under our expectations; although being well into the points is a positive thing.”

It was even worse for Espargaró, as be became one of a number of riders caught out by the soaking wet conditions, falling in the restarted second half of the race.

“It’s a pity because we did a real improvement and my feeling was good. After the first start I felt very uncomfortable on the bike, I couldn’t deploy the power to the ground and also had issues in turning, but in the time between the two legs of the race my crew applied some modifications that finally proved to be very effective.

“After the second start I had a collision with another rider at turn one which sent me into the gravel, but I didn’t crash and I could re-join the race. After this the improvements to the bike allowed me to feel confident and recover to the riders ahead, but unfortunately I crashed. It’s a pity with the result, but I am finally satisfied for the job we have done and for this experience under the rain and it will be useful for the future in case of another wet race.” 

 

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