MotoGP: Iannone, in the tests we will return to last year's bike and we will start from there

The fever is rising for the last act of the MotoGP World Championship in Valencia, where this weekend it will be decided who between Dovizioso and Marquez will win the title.
During the second day of Eicma, the International Cycle and Motorcycle Exhibition scheduled these days in Milan, the Suzuki press conference took place in the presence of the MotoGP team, Andrea Iannone and Alex Rins, and Toni Elias, fresh Champion of the Championship MotoAmerica Superbikes.

For Suzuki this was a complicated year in which the riders had to deal with some structural problems with the bike, which could not be remedied given that in 2017 the team stopped enjoying the open regulation.
As he explained Andrea Iannone: “This year's difficulties were the result of certain choices made at the beginning of the year. We paid for it and therefore we carried these problems with us throughout the Championship. I think this was the hardest thing to accept. Going back to last year's bike would already be a huge achievement. We have it, I think we could start using it again from Monday and we'll figure it out from there. We understood that last year's bike is a better bike compared to today's, so we'll start from there and move forward."

For the rider from Vasto it was a complicated season in which he also had to manage a lot of pressure and criticism, while the 2017 of teammate Alex Rins was heavily affected by a bad fracture in his left wrist, injured during FP3 in Texas, and which forced him to miss many races.

alex rins a season as a rookie in MotoGP from Moto2, in which he immediately went very strong, as Iannone himself said, but conditioned by an injury in the third race.
“It's incredible to ride a MotoGP compared to a Moto2, this year has been a bit difficult because I had several injuries, the first just as soon as I got on the MotoGP during the tests in Valencia, where I got really hurt. I came back recharged, with the desire to do well and these three races in Asia went well, Andrea and I did a good job."
Returning to his first impressions riding a MotoGP, Rins added: "when I tried it for the first time, last year in Valencia, I had no words to describe it: the power, the braking, everything was so fast".

Also present at the conference was Toni Elias, fresh winner of the American Superbike Championship with Suzuki: curiously, the Spaniard was the first winner of the Moto2 Championship in the year in which Andrea Iannone made his debut.
“It was very difficult to fight against him, Toni is a very strong rider” – he said Andrea Iannone – “in the end he won, he was more experienced and for me it was the first year. In practice it seemed like I could stay ahead of him but then in the race he always got on top of him."

Toni Elias was asked, as a veteran of the class, how Moto2 has changed over the years: "It has changed a lot, we are always moving forward in the evolution of the chassis, the tyres, the engine, but those that one day will go MotoGP you see them immediately. Andrea and Alex could clearly see that they were MotoGP riders: they arrive in Moto2 and the results are evident, then in MotoGP you have to find the right bike and the official team, if the base isn't perfect in MotoGP it's difficult."

This year Elias won the American Superbike Championship well in advance, with a new bike developed by Suzuki and his team in America.
“I thought I had finished my career but one day I received a call and I found myself with what I had been looking for for a long time: a motorbike and an official team. Everything worked from the start, the bike worked great, we didn't have any problems, and in the end we won the Championship."

During the presentation, the video of the tests that Iannone and Rins did astride the new GS6 1000 at Phillip Island was shown.
“The bike is really beautiful, we had the chance to ride it for two hours at Phillip Island” – he commented Andrea Iannone – “We had a lot of fun, it drives really well. It's a bit similar to our MotoGP in terms of chassis, very strong cornering, but the gearbox is better than our MotoGP, it's very smooth: Alex and I even told our engineers this."

alex rins he also had the opportunity to try the Suzuki GS6 125 during the last Silverstone GP: “I liked it. It's totally different from the 1000, it's not fast but it's very agile and easy to drive."

Finally, a joke about the outcome of the next Valencia GP is inevitable, with the MotoGP riders however not making any statements about the final outcome of the Marquez-Dovizioso challenge.

Andrea Iannone: “I think it can be a positive match for us, we are coming from a good moment and we can do well”.
alex rins: “I expect a good race on a track that I like a lot. Andrea was very strong in testing last winter and we hope to have a good race."
Toni Elias: "Marc Marquez and Andrea Dovizioso are my friends, but I think that for the work that Andrea and Ducati have done this year they deserve it."