Suzuki’s Big Moment at the Red Bull Ring

The Suzuki Ecstar team seems to be a candidate for Ducati’s strongest competitor at the Red Bull Ring, Sunday (23/8/2020). The reason is, the Japanese factory team has proven that they can compete in the front row at the Austrian Grand Prix last weekend.

Suzuki almost put two of his riders on the Red Bull Ring if Alex Rins did not fall while overtaking Andrea Dovizioso. 

Initially, the Spanish rider was unable to penetrate the front row and was caught in the sixth position. However, a collision incident between Franco Morbidelli and Johnn Zarco made the race temporarily halted. This situation makes the racers have to repeat the race from the start with a total of 20 laps.

This moment was able to make Mir and his teammate, Rins, get up and immediately penetrate the leading position. In fact, Rins was able to threaten the leading position led by Dovizioso, a Ducati racer. However, his attempts failed. He crashed because he was too pushy to take the front position.

That way, Mir became Suzuki’s last representative on the track. He was able to stick to two Ducati riders Dovizioso and Jack Miller who were in second place. Until the last lap, Mir only followed the two Ducati riders. However, he ended up finishing the race in second place after taking advantage of Miller’s errors that went wide in the last two corners.

Mir’s success was enough to provide entertainment for Suzuki. The Suzuki Team Manager Davide Brivio stated that his rider deserved a second podium.

‘Before coming, we thought we would have difficulties here (Red Bull Ring Circuit). But, the bike can appear extraordinary, and our riders have ridden very well,’ said Brivio, quoted by the team’s official website. 

Even so, Brivio did not deny that his team was quite disappointed with Rins’ failure, who was able to present the podium in the race. Unfortunately, the opportunity for the two drivers to be on the podium simultaneously had to run aground. However, Suzuki has performed better than Yamaha and Honda because it was able to match Ducati’s speed at the Red Bull Ring.

‘Unfortunately, Rins fell, and it’s a shame because he was also able to get on the podium. But racing is like this sometimes, and luckily he’s doing well. We’ve been waiting to see what we can do next week,’ said Brivio.

Meanwhile, Rins felt ashamed of his team for not being able to give the best results in the race. His team has given the Suzuki GSX-RR motorbike in very good condition. He successfully recorded the fastest lap with a time of 1 minute 24.007 seconds.

Although disappointed to fail to finish the race and get points, Rins still took the positive side of the Austrian GP. According to him, this race can be an important provision for the fifth series race, which will still be held at the Red Bull Ring Circuit this weekend.

‘Everything is very close in this championship. I’m ready to forget about this race and focus on next weekend,’ he said.