Vermeulen and Rizla Suzuki win at Le Mans!
 Chris
Vermeulen raced to his and Rizla Suzuki MotoGP’s first
Grand Prix win at a rain-soaked Le Mans today.
Vermeulen rode an almost faultless race in the wet after
heavy rain started to fall over the 4.180km French circuit.
He entered pit-lane at the end of lap nine to change to his
wet-weather prepared Suzuki GSV-R. Within two laps he hit
the front and never looked under threat all the way to the
chequered flag, the impressive Australian finishing the race
over 12 seconds in front of the second-placed man Marco Melandri.
World Championship leader Casey Stoner finished third to give
Bridgestone tyres a clean sweep on the podium.
Vermeulen now moves up to fifth place in the MotoGP World
Championship with Rizla Suzuki MotoGP going up to third in
the team’s championship.
John Hopkins looked like he was going to follow up his podium
at China last time out with another one today. He produced
a number of stunning laps – including the fastest lap
of the race – to move into first place on lap nine.
After he entered the pit-lane on the next lap to change to
his wet bike, he was unable to sustain his momentum and also
suffered with a few issues with the set-up of his GSV-R.
Hopkins brought his bike home in seventh place for his fourth
top seven finish of the year, a result that puts him into
sixth place in the overall classification.
Rizla Suzuki MotoGP will now stay in France for a day of
testing before the MotoGP circus moves across Europe for round
six of the championship, to be held at Mugello in Italy on
Sunday 3rd June.
Chris Vermeulen:
“I’m absolutely over the moon! I am really happy
for myself, my crew and everyone involved in the team. We’d
had a difficult weekend coming into the race as not everything
quite went to plan - but we were getting quicker and quicker
and I’m sure if it had been dry today we would have
improved more. The conditions were slippery to start with
and it was difficult to know how hard to push. Some guys came
past me and then a lap or so later they crashed! It started
to rain quite heavy and I decided to come in and change my
bike. I came back out and just stuck my head down and tried
to get the tyres up to heat up as quick as possible. The bike
felt really good in the rain, but as it got heavier it made
it hard to hold the bike in top gear down the straight - there
was so much water it was just spinning the rear! Tom O’Kane
– my Crew Chief - and the rest of the guys gave me a
really good wet bike today as we hadn’t done much wet
testing with the new 800. The tyre choice was spot-on and
the bike was certainly good enough to win on!”
John Hopkins:
“Firstly I want to say well done to Chris and well
done to Suzuki for standing on top of the podium. It is certainly
an achievement to stand on the podium two races in a row;
hopefully we can carry that streak on together. As for the
race we chose one of the hardest slick rear tyres that we
had, so I had to take it easy to get it up to temperature.
Once it was there and I had confidence in it I was able to
go from 12th to first in a short space of time. Everything
was going fine until it started raining harder. I think we
made the right decision when to come in to change the bike.
I tried to get used to riding in the wet and it all seemed
to be going alright, but we had some minor adjustment problems
that hindered us a bit. At the end of the day I kept it on
two wheels and finished the race with some good points. We
will take the positives from this weekend and although I am
disappointed to finish where I did after all the hard work
we put in in the dry, it’s now time to move onto a lot
of tracks that I enjoy and continue this podium streak for
Rizla Suzuki!”
Paul Denning- Team Manager:
“Well done to Chris, to the whole team and to Suzuki
for producing a motorcycle that is capable of producing podiums
in both wet and dry conditions. It may have looked a bit ‘on
the edge’ on television in some of the corners, but
Chris assures us that he had it all under control out there.
I will take his word for that as it was him out there and
not me! He showed again his true level of bike control and
talent. This should give him the confidence to push towards
the front in all conditions over the busy weeks ahead.
“Seventh was not so bad for John, but I really feel
for him given that his performance level was that of a podium
finisher all weekend. He had some small issues with the wet
bike, but he had shown his determination to get to the front
and win a GP by coming from 12th to first in a matter of laps
before the rain really started.
“We still have a lot to do in the test tomorrow and
we hope it dries up enough to get through that programme.
The whole team is certainly on a high at the moment and is
heading towards Mugello looking for more of the same.”
Alice Grand Prix de France Race Classification:
1. CHRIS VERMEULEN (RIZLA SUZUKI MOTOGP) 50’58.713:
2. Marco Melandri (Honda) +12.599: 3. Casey Stoner (Ducati)
+27.347: 4. Dani Pedrosa (Honda) +37.328: 5. Alex Hofmann
+49.166: 7 JOHN HOPKINS (RIZLA SUZUKI MOTOGP) +1’01.073:
World Championship Classification:
1. Stoner 102: 2. Valentino Rossi (Yamaha) 81: 3. Pedrosa
62: 4. Melandri 61: 5. CHRIS VERMEULEN (RIZLA SUZUKI MOTOGP)
55: 6. JOHN HOPKINS (RIZLA SUZUKI MOTOGP) 48:
|
