Vermeulen eighth as Rizla Suzuki’s sole representative
at Dutch TT
 Chris
Vermeulen will start from the third row for tomorrow’s
Dutch TT at Assen, after qualifying his Rizla Suzuki GSV-R
in eighth place during this afternoon’s session.
Vermeulen (1’36.768, 25 laps) lost a lot of valuable
set-up time during this morning’s final free practice
session due to a wet but drying track, following heavy overnight
rain. He worked very hard during the qualifying to make up
for the lost time and was pleased with the steps taken when
it came to using his Bridgestone qualifying tyres to decide
his starting position for tomorrow’s 26-lap race.
Vermeulen will be Rizla Suzuki MotoGP’s sole representative
on the grid for the Dutch Grand Prix following Loris Capirossi’s
crash yesterday that has sidelined the experienced Italian
with a puncture wound to his right inner forearm. Capirossi
was present at the circuit today to support the team and will
remain at Assen until tomorrow’s race. Suzuki’s
Italian star is already making a good recovery from the operation
he had yesterday to repair the injury and is planning to make
a comeback at Sachsenring in Germany next month.
Today’s qualifying was held in dry, but overcast conditions,
reigning World Champion Casey Stoner will start from pole
position with championship leader Valentino Rossi in second.
Tomorrow’s race is the only Grand Prix on the calendar
held on a Saturday and the lights will go out to signal the
start at 14.00hrs local time (12.00hrs GMT).
Chris Vermeulen:
“It was a difficult qualifying session because we had
so much work to get through after losing so much time this
morning. We had a lot of set-up changes that we wanted to
try but it was too wet earlier and we lost a lot of time sitting
in the garage just waiting to see what the weather was going
to do - so really from the morning session we didn’t
learn anything at all! In the qualifying session we got a
little bit lost with set-up because we tried so many things,
and in the end we went back to what we ran yesterday and that
seemed to work well. My last couple of qualifying laps were
pretty good and I managed to get on to the third row and scrape
something out of the session. At least we are up there and
if we get a good start and a strong first few laps, I think
we can be competitive and fight for at least a top five finish.”
Paul Denning – Team Manager:
“This morning was really the same result for everyone
- it was a waste of tyres and fuel because the weather never
stayed consistent enough to get any meaningful information.
The conditions were good enough this afternoon to see some
amazing lap-times – especially from Casey on the Bridgestones.
For Chris it was a difficult session and we never really achieved
the rhythm that we hoped we’d be able to. However, right
at the end he did a great job to get the GSV-R into the top-eight
and on to the third row of the grid. The guys know exactly
what is needed for the warm-up and race so hopefully we’ll
be able to replicate that improvement and run a decent race-pace
tomorrow, we know that Chris has great potential and that
he is ultra hungry for a good result.
“It was hard to see the number 65 bikes in the pit
today, all dressed-up, but with nowhere to go! The good news
is that Loris is in disappointed – but good –
spirits and stayed to support the team today. He is full of
energy and is eager to get back on the bike in Sachsenring
in two weeks.”
A-Style TT Assen Qualifying Practice Classification:
1. Casey Stoner (Ducati) 1’35.520: 2. Dani Pedrosa
(Honda) 0.032: 3. Valentino Rossi (Yamaha) +0.139: 4. Nicky
Hayden (Honda) +0.455: 5.Randy de Puniet (Honda) +0.465: 8.
CHRIS VERMEULEN (RIZLA SUZUKI MOTOGP) +1.248:
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