Rizla Suzuki MotoGP shows good race pace
 Rizla
Suzuki MotoGP racers Loris Capirossi and Chris Vermeulen greatly
improved their race pace during today’s final free practice
session and the early part of this afternoon’s qualifying
session, in readiness for tomorrow’s Spanish Grand Prix
at Jerez.
Capirossi and Vermeulen will both start from the fourth row
of the grid as they qualified in 10th and 12th places respectively,
but their form on Bridgestone race tyres saw the Italian record
the fourth fastest time whilst team-mate Vermeulen was seventh
quickest this afternoon - before all riders switched to qualifying
tyres.
Today’s sessions were again held in warm and sunny
conditions with the track surface reaching 39ºC, as the
air temperature rose to 25ºC. Capirossi and Vermeulen
both worked on finding the best settings for their Suzuki
GSV-R’s and despite starting from the fourth row believe
that they have a good chance in tomorrow’s race.
Pole position today was set Spaniard Jorge Lorenzo on a factory
Yamaha – his second successive pole position of the
season.
Tomorrow’s 27-lap race is round two of the MotoGP World
Championship and the event gets underway at 14.00hrs local
time (12.00hrs GMT), when both Rizla Suzuki MotoGP riders
will be aiming for glory.
Loris Capirossi:
“I think that if we look at our grid position it is
not too good, but we are quite happy with the performance
on race tyres. We are one of the best – if not the best
– on Bridgestone race tyres on the track today and for
sure tomorrow it will be harder to start on the fourth row
but we are quite optimistic. The reason for this is because
we have a good feeling here with the bike and we will certainly
be trying as hard as we can to get a good result tomorrow.”
Chris Vermeulen:
“We had a good session on race tyres and we found something
in the bike and with the Bridgestone tyres. We seem to have
a good pace and we improved quite a bit during the session
and I think there is more to come. With the qualifiers we
made good time today, but it was nowhere near the front guys.
It shows that we still have some work to do with the qualifying
tyres – as we have had in the last few races! I am really
happy with my race set-up, but unfortunately I’m on
the fourth row of the grid so I will need a good start. I
think I’d better get my elbows sharpened to make my
way through!”
Paul Denning – Team Manager:
“There is an easy summary for today; we’re not
happy with the positions and with the difficult job that will
give the guys, but I’m really happy with the general
competitiveness and how well the team and riders have responded
this weekend in Jerez. Loris was one of the quickest guys
on race tyres today and Chris was right up there as well -
they have both got the potential to do really well tomorrow.
A lot of that will depend on the start and the first couple
of laps. Jerez is a tight and difficult place to pass, but
I think our guys have a good package underneath them and they
will be looking to significantly improve on these qualifying
positions during the Grand Prix tomorrow!”
Gran Premio bwin.com De Espana Qualifying Classification:
1. Jorge Lorenzo (Yamaha) 1’38.189: 2. Dani Pedrosa
(Honda) +0.600: 3. Colin Edwards (Yamaha) +0.765: 4. Nicky
Hayden (Honda) +0.872: 5. Valentino Rossi (Yamaha) +0.875:
10. LORIS CAPIROSSI (RIZLA SUZUKI MOTOGP) +1.295: 12. CHRIS
VERMEULEN (RIZLA SUZUKI MOTOGP) +1.515:
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