Rizla Suzuki MotoGP looking for a night to remember tomorrow
 Rizla
Suzuki MotoGP racers Chris Vermeulen and Loris Capirossi will
be hoping that the strong race pace they showed during today’s
final practice session continues in tomorrow’s race,
after a tough qualifying session left them on the fourth and
fifth rows respectively.
Vermeulen (P11, 1’55.540) and Capirossi (P13, 1’56.070)
showed consistently improving times during the first evening
session - and for much of the qualifying hour - as they continued
to work on the set-up of their GSV-Rs for tomorrow’s
22-lap race. The pair were unable to make headway with their
qualifying tyres and now have a lot of work to do to get up
towards the front when the race gets underway tomorrow evening.
This evening marked the inaugural MotoGP qualifying session
held at night, as the riders came to terms with colder track
temperatures caused by the chilly desert air. Reigning 250cc
World Champion Jorge Lorenzo on his factory Yamaha took pole
position in his first event in the MotoGP class.
Tomorrow’s race will be the opening round of the 2008
season and the first-ever road-racing Grand Prix staged at
night under floodlights. The flag drops to signal the start
of the race at 23.00hrs local time (20.00hrs GMT), when both
Rizla Suzuki MotoGP riders will be looking for good starts
to get them straight into the challenging pack.
Chris Vermeulen:
“We made a lot more progress with the bike today and
also my own performance around this track improved. We got
into a good rhythm in the first session and at the end I was
well inside the top-10 on race tyres. The bike felt good and
I could consistently and easily keep doing those times. The
qualifying was a different story and it was plain to see that
the other tyre manufacturer had an advantage on us on qualifiers,
which makes it difficult having to start from back on the
fourth row. As for tomorrow’s race I’ll go out
and give it 100% and I know my race pace is better than some
of the guys in front of me so I’ll see how we can go!”
Loris Capirossi:
“I think we can still make a big step in the race conditions
and get a good result from here. From when we tried the qualifiers
in the test last week, I chose the wrong ones this week. I
had only two qualifiers to Chris’s three and maybe he
had two slightly better ones, as well as one the same as me,
and he said it didn’t work well for him either. Anyway
this was my choice and I know it was a mistake. I am sure
that the race will be much better for us.”
Paul Denning – Team Manager:
“We knew from the test that we were going to be up
against it as regards qualifying tyre performance, and therefore
the result was not completely unexpected. Another couple of
tenths for Chris would have helped him get onto the third
row, but for both the riders we can be positive that our race
pace has improved dramatically over the weekend and both Loris
and Chris made 1’56.0 laps on their chosen race rubber.
We know that they are both extremely hard and consistent racers,
and whilst starting from the fourth and fifth rows is far
from ideal, I think both riders are confident that we can
achieve a far better result by the end of the Grand Prix tomorrow
evening!”
Commercialbank Grand Prix of Qatar Qualifying Practice
Classification:
1. Jorge Lorenzo (Yamaha) 1’53.927: 2. James Toseland
(Yamaha) +0.255: 3. Colin Edwards +0.572: 4. Casey Stoner
(Ducati) +0.806: 5. Randy de Puniet (Honda) 0.891: 11. CHRIS
VERMEULEN (RIZLA SUZUKI MOTOGP) +1.613: 13. LORIS CAPIROSSI
(RIZLA SUZUKI MOTOGP) +2.143:
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