Capirossi to return to Rizla Suzuki for Dutch Grand Prix
Rizla Suzuki MotoGP will be pleased to welcome Loris Capirossi
back from injury for this weekend’s Dutch TT at Assen
in The Netherlands.
Capirossi was an enforced spectator at the last round in
Britain following an accident at Catalunya earlier this month,
which sidelined the Italian star with a broken hand. The injury
has still not completely healed, but Capirossi is determined
to get back on his Suzuki GSV-R this weekend and continue
with the bike’s development and to demonstrate the will
to succeed that he has shown so far this year. His replacement
at the last round – Ben Spies – will also be supporting
the team at Assen and later in the season will return to the
GSV-R for wildcard rides at both American MotoGP rounds.
Chris Vermeulen is confident of continuing with the improvement
of the GSV-R and believes that the progress made at the recent
Catalunya test and during the race weekend at Donington will
translate into better results at forthcoming races - starting
with Assen this weekend. Vermeulen will be travelling to his
ancestral home, as his family name hails from The Netherlands,
and he always enjoys plenty of Dutch support when he races
there.
Assen is unique on the MotoGP calendar for being the only
race to be staged on a Saturday, and also because it is the
only venue that has staged a Grand Prix every season in the
60-year history of the sport. The track is located in the
north of The Netherlands, near the town of Groningen. The
4,555m circuit has undergone some changes in recent seasons
to improve safety and that has taken away some of the old
magic from the famous racetrack, but there is no denying it
is still one of the favourite places to visit on the calendar
for riders and fans alike.
Rizla Suzuki MotoGP will take to track on Thursday this week
for the first practice session, followed by another practice
and qualifying on Friday. The 26-lap race gets underway at
14.00hrs local time (12.00hrs GMT) when the both riders will
be hoping to give title-sponsor Rizla something to shout about
in one of its most important territories.
Loris Capirossi:
“I’m 100% certain that I am able to ride and
I just can’t wait to get back on my bike again. It was
really difficult watching at the last race, but I want to
say well done to Ben as he did a good job in his first GP.
It certainly felt very strange seeing him working with my
crew and sitting in my chair in the garage! I missed the test
in Catalunya because of the injury, but I know Chris made
some improvements to the bike so I will be looking at those
and seeing if they will help me. I need to carry on from where
I left off and continue to make the bike better and I know
that top result is just around the corner.”
Chris Vermeulen:
“I started the race from pole at Assen last year so
that is a good memory for me and one I would certainly like
to repeat. However I was knocked off in the race by another
rider so never managed to capitalise on that, and even though
I finished I was out of the points. As for this year, we have
made lots of steps forward recently and I think we had the
pace to run in the top-five at Donington, but we had some
grip issues later on that stopped me from challenging for
a better position. It’s good to have Loris back and
I hope he’ll be on the pace straight away as it’s
important for the team to have the two of us out there battling
it out.”
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