Testing begins down-under for Rizla Suzuki MotoGP
 Loris
Capirossi and Chris Vermeulen got through a huge amount of
testing today, as they completed the first day of the Phillip
Island test in Australia.
Following on from last week’s positive Malaysian test,
both riders had another large workload to undertake to evaluate
many new parts and settings onboard their Rizla Suzuki GSV-Rs.
Today the two Rizla Suzuki racers focussed their efforts on
mainly getting a good base setting for the 2008 machine at
Phillip Island - a track which has proved difficult for the
Suzuki in the past.
Capirossi and Vermeulen also concentrated on improving the
aerodynamics of the bike as they tried new fairings around
the 4.4km circuit. With a cold wind blowing directly off the
sea - as it was today - Phillip Island is one of the best
circuits in the world to test new aerodynamics and assess
the data collected by both riders. Capirossi completed 82
laps of the track today and team-mate Vermeulen recorded 99.
The Italian’s quickest time of 1’31.274 gave him
ninth place overall on the time sheets with Vermeulen just
behind in 10th, as he set a fastest time of 1’31.317.
Rizla Suzuki MotoGP has two more days in Australia to continue
with its in-depth analysis of the 2008 GSV-R, with further
tests on aerodynamics, chassis settings, a comprehensive Bridgestone
tyre test, plus a thorough assessment of other mechanical
improvements and electronic control strategies.
Loris Capirossi:
“Today has been quite a tough day, but we have certainly
made advances. We set out to get a good base setting for the
bike and we have improved it over the day, but we still have
quite a way to go. We have lots of stuff to test on the bike
and we started to do that today but we still have a lot of
work to do over the next two days. My crew worked really hard
today and because of them we have made a lot of progress,
the bike is improving all the time, but as I have said before
this is a difficult track for the Suzuki so we have lots to
do!”
Chris Vermeulen:
“It’s good to be back in Australia to test again,
although we could do with it being a bit warmer. I got a lot
of laps in today as we need to get through as much work as
possible here this week. The Factory has certainly acted on
the information Loris and I gave them towards the end of last
year, but before we can thoroughly test the new parts we need
to get the settings right, and like Loris I spent a large
part of today sorting those out. I know there is more to come
over the week and I hope we will improve dramatically on those
times and positions.”
Phillip Island Test Day One Classification:
1. Colin Edwards (Yamaha) 1’29.566: 2: Casey Stoner
(Ducati) +0.612: 3. Alex De Angelis (Honda) +1.122: 4. Andrea
Dovizioso (Honda) +1.135: 5. James Toseland (Yamaha) +1.298:
9. LORIS CAPIROSSI (RIZLA SUZUKI MOTOGP) +1.708: 10. CHRIS
VERMEULEN (RIZLA SUZUKI MOTOGP) +1.751:
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