Rizla Suzuki MotoGP finds clear direction on first day in
Portugal
 Rizla
Suzuki MotoGP racers Loris Capirossi and Chris Vermeulen both
made steady progress during today’s rain-affected practice
sessions at Estoril in Portugal.
Heavy overnight rain had left the 4.182km Portuguese circuit
very wet for this morning’s practice and although strong
winds dried out the surface it still made conditions very
difficult as a dry line appeared. With many wet patches on
the track and air temperatures only getting up to 14ºC
made getting a correct setting for both riders’ Suzuki
GSV-Rs quite demanding throughout the day.
Capirossi (P11, 1’39.591, 39 laps) continued to search
for the optimum setting from his machine in the afternoon
session and consistently improved on his times, eventually
finishing just over a second behind today’s fastest
rider, Dani Pedrosa on his factory Honda.
Vermeulen was just one place behind team-mate Capirossi as
he recorded the 12th quickest time of the day with a best
lap of 1’39.946 from his 46 laps. Suzuki’s Australian
star believes there is a lot more to come from both himself
and his machine over the rest of the weekend.
Rizla Suzuki MotoGP has one more practice session on Saturday
morning followed by qualifying in the afternoon. Sunday’s
race is round three of the 2008 MotoGP World Championship
and gets underway at 13.00hrs local time (12.00hrs GMT).
Loris Capirossi:
“It’s been really hard today, because this morning
we didn’t really learn anything because the track was
very bad due to the weather. We used slick tyres this afternoon
but the conditions were still really poor, it was very cold
and we just couldn’t find the best solution. We have
worked a lot on the settings and did make some progress at
the end of the day, so now we have a very good opportunity
to go really well tomorrow.”
Chris Vermeulen:
“We had a bit of everything today condition wise. It
started out wet this morning but dried out quite a lot, but
not enough to go out on slick tyres so we finished the session
on wets. We were riding around on a half dry track so it was
very slippery, but it was fun and we were able to see how
a wet tyre would perform in a race if it started out wet and
then dried up. This afternoon it hadn’t rained but there
were still some small wet patches because there had been so
much rain. The track was mostly dry and with it being so cold
it was difficult to get heat in the tyres, but eventually
we got the bike working quite well and made some big steps.
We have some more things to try tomorrow and hopefully they
will keep us heading in the right direction!”
Paul Denning – Team Manager:
“This morning’s session was a bit of a right-off
in terms of any real meaning as we head towards this weekend’s
race – unless those conditions repeat themselves on
Sunday! This afternoon finished a lot better than it started
with Loris only a second off the fastest rider. The gap isn’t
too bad but we still have quite a bit of work to do tomorrow
– if it’s dry – to give the riders feel
and confidence in the rear of the bike in these cooler conditions
as we move towards the race. If we can do that we have a better
base to challenge the front-runners on Sunday!”
bwin.com Grande Premio de Portugal Day One Practice
Classification:
1. Dani Pedrosa (Honda) 1’38.507: 2. Valentino Rossi
(Yamaha) +0.040: 3. Colin Edwards (Yamaha) +0.125: 4. Nicky
Hayden (Honda) +0.181: 5. Jorge Lorenzo (Yamaha) +0.361: 11.
LORIS CAPIROSSI (RIZLA SUZUKI MOTOGP) +1.084: 12.CHRIS VERMEULEN
(RIZLA SUZUKI MOTOGP) +1.439:
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