Voltcom Crescent Suzuki came out fighting today for its second test of the week despite far from ideal conditions at Portimao, in Portugal, as the team continued with its pre-season preparations.

After a 725km drive from Almeria in Spain, the team worked tirelessly until 2am this morning to ensure everything was in order for Eugene Laverty and Alex Lowes to hit the track on their Yoshimura-powered Suzuki GSX-Rs when the circuit opened at 9am.

A stormy night and a similar morning meant Lowes and Laverty began the test on wet settings, the former having to learn the technical circuit in difficult conditions. Both the racers were comfortable with their base settings and were laying down competitive lap times for the conditions, with Lowes remarkably close to the best wet lap times given his inexperience of the circuit.

A brightening afternoon provided the opportunity to run on Pirelli slick tyres, though strong winds and threatening skies left conditions far from ideal. Laverty and Lowes again impressed with their times, rookie Lowes raising further eyebrows with his quickly competitive pace, while his teammate set the benchmark with the unofficial fastest time of the day. The Voltcom Crescent Suzuki squad used the dry session to test suspension settings, engine braking and traction control strategies and both riders continued their work on chassis balance and steering geometry initiated in Spain earlier in the week. Yohei Kato, Technical Director of Yoshimura Japan, was also on hand to update the team on engine developments and to plan the next steps forward.

The team will now evaluate today’s data before returning to the Portuguese track tomorrow for the final day of testing.


Paul Denning – Team Manager:

“Given that we thought the track would be flooded this morning, it was a nice surprise to start running at 9am and continue with our work, even if the conditions were wet. In hindsight I’m not sure this was such a bad thing in that it enabled the team to make very detailed work on the control strategies, as the riders have to be smooth and analyse the bike’s behaviour so carefully in those conditions. When the track was dry enough for slicks, the settings worked on in the wet transferred well and the 3 hours of running this afternoon was very positive.

“Alex was very fast indeed considering this was his first ever outing at Portimao, with a best lap of 1’43.7 and really consistent pace – his final run was 5 laps all in the 43’s, and he was disappointed he didn’t go faster! With some adjustments to the bike and a night to think about the racetrack and where he and the Suzuki GSX-R1000 can be better, tomorrow could be very interesting…

“Eugene had his best day yet on the Voltcom Crescent Suzuki, posting fastest time overall at 1’43.4, despite the efforts of the Aprilia, Ducati and Honda teams present. He is starting to look like part of the bike and to exploit the Suzuki’s strengths whilst carefully considering how to improve the overall package.

“It’s very early days, but the team and riders are working well and showing huge commitment – we’ll keep pushing hard and see what tomorrow brings!”





(Times courtesy of http://www.gpone.com)

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