Good qualifying sees Rizla Suzuki MotoGP near the front
 Rizla
Suzuki MotoGP racers Loris Capirossi and Chris Vermeulen secured
their best grid positions of the season so far during qualifying
for tomorrow’s Chinese Grand Prix at Shanghai.
Capirossi will start from the second row of the grid in sixth
place, as the experienced Italian narrowly missed out on his
first front row start for Suzuki. His best time of 1’58.941
was only 0.350 seconds away from the third fastest time, set
by World Champion Casey Stoner, and but for a small mistake
on his final lap Capirossi may well have been on the front
row.
Vermeulen produced a fine display in qualifying, both on
Bridgestone race tyres in the early part of the session and
on the qualifiers in the closing stages. Suzuki’s Australian
rider was inside the top five on race rubber and the hard
work that his crew have put in over the past two days certainly
begin to show dividends. He will start from the middle of
the third row, after qualifying in eighth place with a time
of 1’59.325.
Today’s qualifying was held in bright and sunny conditions
with track temperatures again over 50ºC. Pole position
went to Colin Edwards on his Tech3 Yamaha.
Tomorrow’s 22-lap race gets underway at 15.00hrs local
time (07.00hrs GMT) when both Rizla Suzuki racers will be
looking to capitalise on their good grid positions and race
to their best results of 2008 so far - but, with rain forecast
at the 5,281m circuit, both riders will need to be ready for
any conditions.
Loris Capirossi:
“I am quite happy today because this is the first time
that we have had a good qualifying. We have worked hard to
get the bike’s settings right and it is now working
well on race tyres. We still have a couple of options for
which tyres to use tomorrow and we will decide on that in
the morning. The qualifying and race tyres worked well and
we have a good rhythm with the race package, and it will be
good to start nearer the front. We will see what happens tomorrow
as the forecast says rain which will be awful after all the
hard work we have put in. Our target remains the same, which
is to win races and get podiums, I know that will be hard
here, but we will certainly be pushing for it!”
Chris Vermeulen:
“Things have been a lot better today. The tests after
the last few events have really paid off and Bridgestone has
helped out and brought us some new rubber that is a lot more
competitive – so I am really thankful to them for that.
My crew have worked really hard this week and we have had
to overcome some major issues in some of the sessions - the
guys have worked their hearts out! It has definitely paid
off as we were consistently inside the top-five during the
qualifying session on race tyres, and on the qualifiers it
is a lot better to be right up there. It will still be hard
work from the third row, but Suzuki had a good result here
last year and we know we can be competitive. I’m looking
forward to the race and I’ll certainly be giving it
my best!”
Paul Denning – Team Manager:
“It’s been a decent weekend’s work here
in Shanghai and today’s qualifying is our best of the
season so far. The Bridgestone tyres have worked better in
qualifying than they have elsewhere, so at least the guys
can see the lights and that will give them a better chance
of getting into the front running pace early on. It’s
no secret that Chris has sometimes struggled to get to his
full potential in qualifying and we were all pleased that
today he pushed as hard as possible - a few hundredths of
a second certainly makes a difference to your grid position.
“It looked like we were going to have our first front
row start of the year with Loris, but when you are pushing
that hard sometimes mistakes happen. He nearly crashed on
his last lap, but he kept it upright and was still able to
bring the GSV-R home for a second row start.
“Whatever the conditions tomorrow, we are looking forward
to a good race; we know our guys will be giving their maximum
effort.”
Pramac Grand Prix of China Qualifying Classification:
1. Colin Edwards (Yamaha) 1’58.139: 2. Valentino Rossi
(Yamaha) +0.355: 3. Casey Stoner (Ducati) +0.452: 4. Jorge
Lorenzo (Yamaha) +0.572: 5. Dani Pedrosa (Honda) +0.716: 6.
LORIS CAPIROSSI (RIZLA SUZUKI MOTOGP) +0.802: 8. CHRIS VERMEULEN
(RIZLA SUZUKI MOTOGP) +1.186:
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