Capirossi battles to eighth in Qatar
 Loris
Capirossi marked his debut with the Rizla Suzuki MotoGP team
by claiming a hard-earned eighth position at the first race
of the season in Qatar.
Starting from 13th on the grid, Capirossi fought his way
through the field to eighth on lap five, maintaining that
position for the rest of the 22-lap race. Capirossi came under
heavy pressure in the final laps from Randy de Puniet, but
the 34-year-old Italian used all his experience to fight off
the challenge and preserve his place.
Chris Vermeulen made a good start to the first-ever night
race and improved on his grid position early on, but a suspected
fault with his front tyre caused the Australian to pit. After
rejoining the race with a new front tyre fitted, he tried
to make up places to score valuable championship points, but
finished the race just outside the scoring positions in 17th
place.
Today’s race was the first held under floodlights and
the honour of being the first rider to win a Grand Prix on
asphalt at night went to reigning World Champion Casey Stoner
on his factory Ducati.
Rizla Suzuki MotoGP now moves back to Europe for the second
round of the season on Sunday 30th March, to be held at Jerez
in Spain.
Loris Capirossi:
“For sure I am not happy because our target is to fight
for the podium or victories, and at the moment we are a bit
off that. We tried to do our best in the race and compared
to the test and the practices here this week we certainly
went a little bit better in the race. We still have to continue
to improve our entire package so we can be running at the
front. I really want to thank my team because they gave me
a good opportunity to try my best this weekend with the bike
they prepared for me. We now have another 17 races left and
we can certainly improve a lot in them!”
Chris Vermeulen:
“Not a great start to the season! I made a good start
and got off the line well. I was in a good position, but I
had an issue with the front tyre right from the first lap.
It just didn’t work and after five laps it was completely
destroyed, so I had to come in and get a new one fitted. We
will have to look at it with Bridgestone and find out why
it happened. After we replaced the tyre – with the same
spec one – I went back out and just tried to stay out
of everyone’s way. I ended up following Loris in his
battle with de Puniet and I was comfortable doing those lap-times
at the end when I had a decent front tyre in. It’s a
shame really, and although I don’t think we had the
pace to run with the front group I felt like I could have
scored a lot more points than we have now.”
Paul Denning – Team Manager:
“Firstly we have to say that it was a proud moment
for Suzuki and the team to see Loris make his first start
in a Grand Prix on the GSV-R. It is no secret that we had
a difficult test here a week ago and Loris’s 13th position
on the grid didn’t make a top result easy. It was great
to see him push so hard and fight his way through - unfortunately
by the time he got to eighth position the lead group had gone
and there was nothing more he could do other than maintain
his position. He apologised to the team after the race for
the result, but there was no need to do so – he gave
his maximum and I think we will have many better days than
this one.
“As for Chris we are all disappointed, so much so that
it is difficult to put into words because without question
he has the ability to challenge at the front. He made a great
start and a good first lap to get himself into a good position,
but suffered a very unusual problem with the front tyre that
made the bike almost unrideable. He handled himself professionally
and I’d like to thank him for getting back out out there
in case there were any points to be had.
“We now move to Jerez in a better frame of mind and
in a better starting position than we were a week ago. We
are certainly looking forward to building on our potential
from there on!”
Commercialbank Grand Prix of Qatar Race Classification:
1. Casey Stoner (Ducati) 42’36.587: 2. Jorge Lorenzo
(Yamaha) +5.323: 3. Dani Pedrosa (Honda) +10.600: 4. Andrea
Dovizioso (Honda) +13.288: 5. Valentino Rossi (Yamaha) +13.305:
8. LORIS CAPIROSSI (RIZLA SUZUKI MOTOGP) +32.505: 17. CHRIS
VERMEULEN (RIZLA SUZUKI MOTOGP) 1 LAP:
World Championship Classification:
1. Stoner 25: 2. Lorenzo 20: 3. Pedrosa 16: 4. Dovizioso
13: 5. Rossi 11: 8. LORIS CAPIROSSI (RIZLA SUZUKI MOTOGP)
8: 17. CHRIS VERMEULEN (RIZLA SUZUKI MOTOGP) 0
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