Capirossi seventh after first competitive Rizla Suzuki outing
 Rizla
Suzuki MotoGP racer Loris Capirossi recorded the seventh quickest
time during today’s timed practice session at Jerez
in Spain.
The 40-minute session was the first ‘official’
competition of this year’s MotoGP World Championship
and Capirossi pushed all the way to win the car that was the
prize to the rider with the fastest time. The Italian star
used all his experience in the difficult conditions to improve
on his time throughout the session. He looked likely to better
his position on the final lap but unfortunately ran off the
track and was unable to move up the leader-board.
The session was held in dry conditions, but the track was
still wet following heavy rain this morning making conditions
very tricky as the surface started to dry out. Rizla Suzuki’s
Chris Vermeulen was second quickest during this morning’s
practice session, but was just not able to repeat that performance
this afternoon. He suffered with similar difficulties in the
damp conditions to those he experienced in the dry yesterday
and was never in real contention for the top places.
Reigning World Champion Casey Stoner on his Bridgestone-shod
Ducati set the fastest time this afternoon and was awarded
with a brand new BMW car.
Rizla Suzuki MotoGP has one more full-day of testing at the
4.4km Spanish circuit tomorrow, before it moves on to Losail
in Qatar for the next Official IRTA test.
Loris Capirossi:
“It was not too bad this afternoon and we actually
tried lots of different things from this morning in the changing
conditions. We fixed the bike a bit, but we still have a lot
to do – especially in the wet conditions. I don’t
want to say I am totally happy, but we have to keep working
in the way we are going. I can see that the whole team is
really close to getting the bike right and understanding what
we need. We still have to improve, but with all things considered
I am quite happy with where we are at the moment, because
I can see things getting better!”
Chris Vermeulen:
“Today has been very different to yesterday with the
weather conditions. This morning we had three-hours of wet
time and it was quite good to ride the bike around Jerez in
the wet. We tried some tyres for Bridgestone and got a set-up
for the rain, but to be totally honest I am still struggling
with very similar things to the ones in the dry. It was still
another good test though so that is a positive thing for us.
In the 40-minute timed session the track changed quite a lot.
It hadn’t rained for a while but it was still very wet
and greasy. It tended to be more like dry conditions and that
made us struggle even more. We still have some work to do
so hopefully tomorrow will be dry and we’ll be able
to get it all done.”
Paul Denning – Team Manager:
“It was good to see Loris in his first competitive
outing on a Suzuki. We didn’t quite have the pace to
challenge to win the car, but Loris made a big effort to get
somewhere close on the last lap and unfortunately he pushed
a bit too hard and went off the track. We expected full commitment
from him and it was good to see that in action!
“Chris was very quick in the full wet conditions this
morning – before the timed session – and we expected
to see him fighting for the top positions, but it didn’t
quite work out and some of the problems he had yesterday manifested
themselves again today in the damp - but drying - conditions
during the timed session.
“The good news is that it seems to be getting drier
and if it does we will hopefully get in some good runs and
try to take a big step forward in starting to solve some of
the issues we’ve had during this test.”
Official Practice Classification:
1. Casey Stoner (Ducati) 1’49.263: 2. Valentine Rossi
(Yamaha) +1.317: 3. Nicky Hayden (Honda) +1.522: 4. Anthony
West (Kawasaki) +1.536: 5. Andrea Dovizioso (Honda) +2.049:
7. LORIS CAPIROSSI (RIZLA SUZUKI MOTOGP) +2.631: 13. CHRIS
VERMEULEN (RIZLA SUZUKI MOTOGP) +3.516:
|
