Rizla Suzuki MotoGP faces tough start in German Grand Prix
 Rizla
Suzuki MotoGP racers Loris Capirossi and Chris Vermeulen will
start from 13th and 14th places respectively on the grid for
tomorrow’s German Grand Prix after a tough qualifying
session at Sachsenring today.
Capirossi (1’22.542, 29 laps) again had to overcome
the pain and discomfort in his right arm as he fought with
his Suzuki GSV-R and the demanding German circuit to find
the best set-up for tomorrow’s race. He worked hard
with his crew and found a setting that he believes will suit
him in Sunday’s race and is confident of improving on
his qualifying position in the 30-lap event.
Vermeulen (1’22,601, 32 laps) will start next to Capirossi
on the fifth row as he was unable to improve upon his earlier
good performance on race tyres when he used the qualifying
tyres at the end of the session. Vermeulen had been consistently
in the top-eight on race rubber in the early part of the hour-long
session, but he just couldn’t find the extra edge grip
to improve on his times, and knows he has a tough job from
the start tomorrow.
This afternoon’s qualifying session was held in overcast
conditions with track temperatures reaching 28ºC. World
Champion Casey Stoner secured his third pole position in succession
on his factory Ducati.
Tomorrow’s German Grand Prix is round 10 of the season
and the 30-lap race gets underway at 14.00hrs local time (12.00hrs
GMT).
Loris Capirossi:
“It’s been very difficult today, but I am quite
happy because with the race tyre and the set-up we have a
good rhythm. With the qualifiers we struggled a little bit,
but on the race tyres we made a big step from yesterday and
this is very important. My condition is still not too good,
but I tried as hard as I could, but I don’t really have
the strength to give it 100%. It is important to follow on
working on the things we have been doing this weekend and
try as hard as we can tomorrow. This is a difficult track
for us, but I am very positive about the race, and I will
do my best as always!”
Chris Vermeulen:
“We made some progress with the bike on race tyres
today and I picked up about three-quarters-of-a-second on
my lap-times and that put me in the top seven or eight. It
wasn’t easy doing those times, but we could do them
consistently on a used tyre. Unfortunately when we put in
the qualifiers we weren’t able to go any quicker and
the last tyre just didn’t seem to work at all, so we
will need to look at that later with Bridgestone to figure
out why. It sucks being so far back on the grid and it will
be hard to get through on this track, but I’ll be going
for it from the start and plan to make sure I get up in the
top 10 early on and see where we go from there!”
Paul Denning – Team Manager:
“We took some good steps with the bike today, but it
wasn’t enough to get near the front guys in qualifying.
We struggled to get any benefit from the qualifiers today,
which given the fact that the same tyre is on pole clearly
indicates that the issue is more ours than Bridgestone’s
- Chris’s best lap on qualifiers was the same as on
a pair of 14-lap old race tyres.
“Loris made a massive effort today, and again the team
wants to say thank-you to him for his commitment. I think
if he was 100% he’d be a bit closer to the pace, but
as always his attitude gives the guys in the garage a buzz
and we’re all looking forward to seeing what he can
achieve tomorrow!
“Chris’s pace was much improved on race tyres
today, so we will be focussing on further improvements tonight
for both riders and try to salvage the best possible results
in tomorrow’s Grand Prix.”
Alice Motorrad Grand Prix Deutschland Qualifying
Practice Classification:
1. Casey Stoner (Ducati) 1’21.067: 2. Dani Pedrosa
(Honda) +0.353: 3. Colin Edwards (Yamaha) +0.452: 4. Andrea
Dovizioso (Honda) +0.589: 5. Jorge Lorenzo (Yamaha) +0.728:
13. LORIS CAPIROSSI (RIZLA SUZUKI MOTOGP) +1.475: 14. CHRIS
VERMEULEN (RIZLA SUZUKI MOTOGP) +1.534:
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