Capirossi and Vermeulen robbed of higher finishes
 Rizla
Suzuki MotoGP’s Loris Capirossi was deprived of at least
a top five position at the Chinese Grand Prix in Shanghai
today, through a mixture of bad luck and a small mistake.
Capirossi was looking to challenge for a much higher position
on lap five, but an error at the end of the back straight
caused the Italian racer to run off the track. He re-joined
the race in 12th place and began the task of chasing down
the pack in front of him. Capirossi used all his experience
to close in and pass five more riders to move him into seventh
on the penultimate lap, but he suffered a transmission problem
on the last lap and crossed the line in ninth position. This
result gave Capirossi seven points, and moved him up to fifth
in the riders’ championship.
Chris Vermeulen had an afternoon he would rather forget.
The talented Australian had looked impressive during yesterday’s
practice, but a similar technical fault to Capirossi which
began directly from the start of the race caused Vermeulen
to enter the pits and retire from the race at the end of lap
six.
Today’s race was declared ‘wet’ after heavy
rain this morning, but with warm air temperatures of 22ºC
drying the track, all riders started on slick tyres. A crowd
of just over 20,000 witnessed former World Champion Valentino
Rossi win his first race since September last year.
Rizla Suzuki MotoGP now travels back to Europe for fifth
round of the 2008 MotoGP World Championship at Le Mans in
France – the scene of Vermeulen’s premier Grand
Prix victory last year – on Sunday 18th May.
Loris Capirossi:
“It’s difficult to say that this was a positive
day, but we did improve a lot and if it wasn’t for my
mistake early on it could have been a lot better. I didn’t
want to lose touch with the top guys and my rhythm was really
good, but I ran off and that cost me some places. I got back
up to seventh and then I had a technical problem and I lost
two positions right at the end. Now we will go to Le Mans
and make sure that we are competitive there – we had
the potential to do much better today!”
Chris Vermeulen:
“Obviously I’m not happy with today’s result;
in fact that’s probably an understatement! I had a problem
right from the start and the chain kept slipping making the
bike really difficult to ride. I felt like my pace was quicker
than the four guys in front of me, but every time I tried
to pass them the chain would just slip and I’d lose
my momentum. Then towards the end of lap six the chain came
off and I had to go into the pits and that was the race over.
I am really disappointed with what happened, but we have to
learn from this and make sure that it doesn’t happen
again. We now have to re-group and come back even stronger
in France!”
Paul Denning – Team Manager:
“Today has been a disappointing end to what has been
a good weekend’s work. Chris suffered an extremely unusual
technical problem which I know the Suzuki factory will react
to very quickly and he deserved much better – he’s
an awesome racer who just needs his luck to change.
“For Loris it was his most competitive race on a Suzuki
so far, and he had the pace to finish at least in the top
five if everything had gone to plan. Unfortunately he made
a mistake early on – which can happen when you are pushing
to the maximum – and although he fought back to seventh
he was denied by a similar problem to Chris.
“The Team is feeling very disappointed at the moment,
but we have made some steps this weekend both in qualifying
and with race pace, and the guys still have the confidence
to look forward to Le Mans and pushing for the front positions.”
Mr Masahito Nishikawa – General Manager of
Motorcycle Engine Design Department:
“It has been a good experience for me to visit the
team and work with them here in China. I will now take my
report back to the Factory and make sure that we can start
to be more competitive. We will try to take the steps we need
to make this bike a race winner.”
Pramac Grand Prix of China Race Classification:
1. Valentino Rossi (Yamaha) 44’08.061: 2. Dani Pedrosa
(Honda) +3.890: 3. Casey Stoner (Ducati) +15.928: 4. Jorge
Lorenzo (Yamaha) +22.494: 5. Marco Melandri (Ducati) +26.957:
9. LORIS CAPIROSSI (RIZLA SUZUKI MOTOGP) +31.440: DNF. CHRIS
VERMEULEN (RIZLA SUZUKI MOTOGP):
World Championship Classification:
1. Pedrosa 81: 2. Lorenzo 74: 3. Rossi 72: 4. Stoner 56:
5. LORIS CAPIROSSI (RIZLA SUZUKI MOTOGP) 33: 14. CHRIS VERMEULEN
(RIZLA SUZUKI MOTOGP) 14:
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