Solid results on challenging day for Rizla Suzuki MotoGP
 Rizla
Suzuki MotoGP racers Loris Capirossi and Chris Vermeulen both
recorded top-10 positions in today’s Italian Grand Prix
at Mugello.
Capirossi got a good start from the front row of the grid
and was battling with the lead group in the early stages of
the race, but as track temperatures rose to 50ºC, grip
started to become a problem for the hard-riding Italian. Capirossi
fought for every place right through to the chequered flag
and brought his Rizla Suzuki GSV-R home in seventh, to keep
him in sixth place in the riders’ championship.
Vermeulen got a good start from 11th on the grid, but was
boxed out in the early part of the first lap and relegated
down to 17th by the end of lap one. The Australian made his
way through the field with some strong overtaking manoeuvres
to get up to 10th place. Vermeulen was never challenged for
the final top-10 position, but was too far behind the riders
in front to make any further advancement. As he also suffered
with some grip issues, he made sure of bringing his machine
home safely to secure valuable championship points.
Today’s race was held in warm sunshine with temperatures
reaching 28ºC. A record crowd of over 96,000 at the Mugello
circuit witnessed home-hero Valentino Rossi win his seventh
successive Italian Grand Prix, and strengthen his lead at
the top of the World Championship table.
Rizla Suzuki MotoGP now only has a few days before it is
in action again, as it makes the short journey across Europe
to Spain for the Catalonian Grand Prix in Barcelona next Sunday.
Loris Capirossi:
“I am very frustrated, because we tried to do our best
and it should have been a better result for us today. I tried
to stay with the three front guys for as long as I could,
but I was losing a bit on the straights and I had to push
really hard on the brakes and through the corners. We started
to lose grip and I tried as hard as I could to finish as high
as possible. I am not happy at all today and we will have
to work hard with Suzuki, because sometimes our bike is good
but sometimes over a longer distance we still need to work
on some things to be able to make a challenge. The good thing
though is that the whole team worked really hard this weekend
and they are trying everything to make the bike work well.”
Chris Vermeulen:
“That was a really tough race with the track being
so much hotter today. It’s been difficult all weekend
with the changing conditions, and unfortunately with the lack
of testing time and the heat we just didn’t have the
grip that we wanted - which made the bike quite difficult
to ride for the whole race. I got a good start but then got
boxed in and pushed wide and ended up back in 17th. So to
come through to 10th I felt like I rode well. I had to pass
a lot of people and that is not easy around here, but hopefully
we can find out what our problems from today were and learn
from them for Barcelona next week.”
Paul Denning – Team Manager:
“It’s pretty clear that things didn’t get
anywhere near our expectations today. Both riders suffered
from essentially the same problem, which was a lack of grip.
We need to understand as quickly as we can why the durability
dropped away today. The weather over the weekend didn’t
allow us to test in the conditions that we had in the race,
but obviously our competitors were far less effected by the
increase in temperatures than us. We must work hard with Suzuki’s
engineers and with Bridgestone to achieve the consistency
in the bike when conditions change.
“Both of the guys gave everything today and right till
the end Loris was fighting for every place, but the result
was not near what he was capable of this weekend. The one
good thing is that we only have a few days before we can put
this behind us in Catalunya and get things moving in the right
direction!”
Gran Premio D’Italia Alice Race Classification:
1. Valentino Rossi (Yamaha) 42’31.153: 2. Casey Stoner
(Ducati) +2.201: 3. Dani Pedrosa (Honda) +4.867: 4. Alex de
Angelis (Honda) +6.313: 5. Colin Edwards (Yamaha) +12.530:
7. LORIS CAPIROSSI (RIZLA SUZUKI MOTOGP) +14.447: 10. CHRIS
VERMEULEN (RIZLA SUZUKI MOTOGP) +30.785:
World Championship Classification:
1. Rossi 122: 2. Pedrosa 110: 3. Jorge Lorenzo (Yamaha) 94:
4. Stoner 76: 5. Edwards 58: 6. LORIS CAPIROSSI (RIZLA SUZUKI
MOTOGP) 51: 11. CHRIS VERMEULEN (RIZLA SUZUKI MOTOGP) 31:
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