Andrea Iannone (Team Suzuki Ecstar) and teammate Alex Rins took the best finishes of the year for the Suzuki team on home turf at the Twin Ring Motegi, coming home in fourth and fifth in torrential conditions – and Rins as top rookie after overcoming a run off early on.
“The result is fantastic and the bike has worked pretty well in wet conditions the whole weekend,” beams Rins. “I started a bit far back when in the first corners someone forced me to go wide and I lost some more positions, falling back to 15th. It took me some time to regain my position in the race, but I finally finished in 5th, so I'm very happy. I lost some time behind Zarco but the conditions of track were not easy. I learnt so many things today.”
“This was a race that I enjoyed and it has been a positive one for us,” says Iannone, “I’m happy for the improvements we made from the time of the warm-up to the race which allowed us to find that consistency. It’s also positive that we could have a good race right here in Japan. It’s a good sign after the struggles we have faced this year. We still have much work to do and to improve, but compared to the beginning of the season, we are now more aware of where we can improve.”
Improvement was the name of the game for Rins, who had his best ever race result in the premier class and was top rookie – after a very difficult start to his campaign marred by injury. The top five result, after also going through to Q2 and showing great pace all weekend, makes it by far the best GP of the year -
“The result is fantastic and the bike has worked pretty well in wet conditions the whole weekend,” beams Rins. “I started a bit far back when in the first corners someone forced me to go wide and I lost some more positions, falling back to 15th. It took me some time to regain my position in the race, but I finally finished in 5th, so I'm very happy. I lost some time behind Zarco but the conditions of track were not easy. I learnt so many things today.”
The weekend bodes well for Suzuki ahead of Phillip Island, with both riders positive and taking big hauls of points before the trip down under.