Suzuki MotoGP riders get extra engines

Rizla Suzuki riders Loris Capirossi and Alvaro Bautista will get three extra engines each for the remainder of the 2010 MotoGP season, it was announced after a meeting of the Grand Prix Commission at Brno.

With only half the racing season gone, both GSV-R riders are already near the six-engines limit (per rider) and the generous concession will avoid - or at least delay - the troubled manufacturer from having its riders start from the end of pit lane, with a ten second penalty.

That is the punishment applied to a rider, each time an extra engine is used above the allowed allocation.

The Grand Prix Commission statement spared Suzuki's blushes by not specifically naming the manufacturer for special treatment, talking instead of any 2010 manufacturer which has not won two dry races in the last two years.

Suzuki has not won a dry race in the MotoGP era, which began in 2002. Yamaha and Honda have won two dry races this year and Ducati last year.

"For 2010 the manufacturer members of MSMA who did not win at least 2 dry races in 2008 + 2009 seasons can use 9 engines instead of 6," said the statement.

Some will say that such ad-hoc concessions make a mockery of the rules, but the other manufacturers presumably feel unthreatened by Suzuki - and/or fear that engine punishments could push them one step closer to leaving the sport - and so have decided (apparently without Suzuki petitioning) to help them out.

Suzuki has taken a best race finish if fifth this season, Capirossi and Bautista only 13th and 16th in the riders' championship. Suzuki is also a distant last in the constructors' championship with 48 points (compared with 215 for Yamaha, 175 for Honda and 133 for Ducati).

Those that might feel less charitable are the satellite competitors battling with Suzuki for riders' and teams' championship points.

Just 24 points (less than a race win) separate Marco Simoncelli in tenth to Bautista in 16th, while Rizla Suzuki is seventh out of ten in the teams' championship - 13 points behind the one-rider LCR Honda squad, and just two points ahead of Pramac Ducati.