Has Suzuki's pace worried the rest of the MotoGP grid?

Suzuki’s engine upgrades for this weekend have given the Japanese manufacturer a boost ahead of the Catalan Grand Prix and both Maverick Vinales and Aleix Espargaro have been able to make use of the new power to set impressive times. In the all important FP3 session both riders were in the top three and even taking into account the advantages of the softer tyre they can avail of they were very impressive.

Their rivals have sat up and taken notice with the majority of the field passing judgement on the improvements and admitting that it will make Suzuki a much more dangerous proposition throughout the coming races.

Marc Marquez felt that the team has been able to maintain their sweet handling chassis and Espargaro’s race pace has impressed the reigning world champion.

“With Suzuki it looks like the engine is faster,” said Marquez. “On the main straight they are only eight-ten kph slower than us. Aleix is really fast, not only one lap but with race pace. I can say now that with Lorenzo he is one of the few riders that are stronger. We will see this weekend if the grip improve. For qualifying he’s making it more difficult for everybody.”

When speaking about the upgrades Espargaro surprised many when he said that the power delivery is now more manageable despite the steps made by the team to improve power and top speed.

“The engine is better,” said Espargaro. “We gained about two or three ks. We were always one k down on Bautista and now we are two ks up. This is great but we need more. After five months Suzuki is working hard. The weird thing is the power delivery is even better. The engine character is completely different. It’s a lot more smooth in the bottom which is great news. When they decided to bring the new engine I was a little bit afraid. Sometimes it can be too aggressive. It was really smooth in the bottom but also the electronics change, the engine brake change. We still need some time to understand it.”

Bradley Smith chimed in by saying that while they still can’t match the Yamaha for top speed they’re now much closer and still able to set the pace in the flowing sections of the track.

Usually, I think mine was 338. They are absolutely not far off. And the only place they’ll struggle at a track like this is that final run down into Turn 1, which is not a lot at all. In the fourth sector, Aleix was four tenths faster than everybody, so they’ve got that one dialed in quite well. They’ve got that on everybody, that’s the crazy thing.”

Andrea Dovizioso commented that he wasn’t too surprised by their pace given how strong Espargaro has always been at the track but he’s waiting until the race to see the steps that they have made and whether they’ll be able to get into the fight at the front.

“He was also very fast at this track last year,” said Dovizioso. “But I think it is also a consequence of not being able to use too much power at this track. It looks from the outside that their chassis is really good and at this track it is very important to have good feeling at the front. I’m surprised and happy for him but not too surprised.

“I think the race will be more difficult than practice because it is easier to do a lap time in practice when you can use maximum energy. In the race it is always different. The grip is normally less. Everybody has more problems in the race. So I believe for that reason it can be more difficult. We will see. Tomorrow will be an important day, getting closer to the race, but for sure Espargaro will be competitive also in the race because he is very fast at this track.”

Suzuki has clearly made a lot of progress and they’re speed is real now but making it last for 45 minutes on a race day will be a huge challenge. As a returning manufacturer they have done a tremendous job and their improvements are significent however the fight is so competitive now that it’s going to be a massive challenge to fight with Yamaha, Ducati and Honda.