The German GP in 2015 was a special one for Team Suzuki Ecstar as they ran a special livery to celebrate the anniversary of the GSX-R. During the race Aleix Espargaro and Maverick Viñales (Team Suzuki Ecstar) then produced a thrilling battle between themselves for tenth place with Espargaro just winning out. The Spaniard is hoping to end inside the top ten this time out, a year’s worth of bike development helping the GSX-RR immensely. Sachsenring has almost always been kind to Aleix Espargaro in the premier class, only once finishing outside the top ten.
Tyre management is key around the unique German track, at a little under 3.7km in length; it’s the shortest on the calendar. But with three right hand corners and a staggering ten lefts, it places incredible demands on the tyres. Setup will be as important as ever and Espargaro is looking to finalise his setting quicker and sooner. With rain predicted throughout the weekend, Espargaro and his crew will need to be flexible and react to the changes the weather may bring.
Aleix Espargaro: “The German race will be very peculiar, the track layout will be very demanding for the tyres as it has many left corners and also the rider is required to be wise in order to manage the tyre performance in any conditions, and also on the few right corners. It’s a nice challenge, last year was emotional for the special livery we had and was fun because we had two Suzuki’s fighting with each other. Many things have changed since last year, we are performing better, although we still miss consistency. We need to work hard to find a better way to finalise the machine and be fast in any conditions, we are getting more and more into the machine’s workings, but I believe we still can do better and this is our primary objective.”