Capirossi flies to front row start in Mugello
 Loris
Capirossi secured his first front row start of the season
as he powered his Rizla Suzuki GSV-R to third place on the
grid for tomorrow’s Italian GP.
Capirossi (1’48.313, 26 laps) showed his intentions
from this morning’s free practice session onwards. He
was third quickest in the hour long session - even though
a large amount of time was lost to bad weather. The experienced
Italian used all his home-track knowledge today to record
some very fast and consistent race simulation laps and will
be looking to translate that form - and his best starting
position since 2006 - into his best result of the season so
far tomorrow.
Chris Vermeulen (P11, 1’49.220, 26 laps) was also very
quick on his Bridgestone race tyres, with lap-times consistently
in the top six during the first part of this afternoon’s
practice session. Suzuki’s Australian star will start
from the middle of the fourth row after his qualifying laps
didn’t go quite as planned, he was unable to get a clean
lap of the 5.2km Mugello circuit and will need to get a good
start tomorrow to make sure he is challenging at the front.
Today’s qualifying was held in sunny conditions –
the first session of the weekend that hasn’t been disrupted
by wet weather – with air temperatures reaching the
mid-twenties and track surface temperature getting up to 39ºC.
Pole position was taken by Capirossi’s compatriot Valentino
Rossi on his factory Yamaha.
Tomorrow’s race is round six of the MotoGP World Championship
and the lights change to signal the start of the 23-lap event
at 14.00hrs local time (12.00hrs GMT), when both Rizla Suzuki
MotoGP racers will be pushing to the limits for the best results
possible.
Loris Capirossi:
“It is a really good day for me! We have worked really
hard right from first thing this morning and the team made
a very clever and good job because they changed a lot of settings
today - the bike was much better! Also we got a good rhythm
with the race tyre and that was important for us as we didn’t
get a lot of time to get the set-up right – Stuart and
the guys have done a great job today! I was a bit lucky on
qualifying because I followed Valentino and he made an amazing
time and I risked a lot on that lap to keep with him. I am
happy to be on the front row and tomorrow is the first time
this year we have had a good opportunity to fight for the
podium, but I won’t be going out for just that. I will
be going for the win!”
Chris Vermeulen:
“Today was a lot better condition wise, but like everyone
else we were a day behind. So with just today to get the set-up
right we had a lot of work to do to get the bike to its best
possible character and to choose the tyres for the race. With
the track being hot today we went with quite hard Bridgestone
race tyres and I felt my race-pace was quicker than last year
and I was up with the front group without having to push too
much. On the qualifiers it’s such a long lap and a difficult
circuit that you really need to get a very clean lap for a
good time, and unfortunately I didn’t make one –
or if it seemed like I was going to I got held up by slower
riders. We’re only a couple of tenths-of-a-second off
being a row further up, but our race pace is strong and a
with a good start tomorrow I’m sure we are capable of
running in the top-five!”
Paul Denning – Team Manager:
“I am pleased for the whole team that we are back on
the front row, and for it to happen for Loris at his home
Grand Prix is even more satisfying, especially after all the
hard work he has put in since he joined Suzuki. It is a great
reward for everyone’s efforts! He has also done some
great lap-times on the Bridgestone race tyres and his determination
being as high as it is I can’t see the front group getting
away from him tomorrow without a massive fight! We are looking
forward to his best race – so far – on a Rizla
Suzuki.
“Chris’s story is a bit different and we really
feel for him because he’s improved his qualifying technique
a lot this season and he pushed to the maximum today, but
just never managed to string the perfect lap together. His
true potential was around sixth position rather than 11th,
but the good news is that he has a very quick and consistent
race pace and a set-up that he is really pleased with. If
he can get a start similar to Le Mans I am sure he will be
right up there with the quick boys!”
Gran Premio D’Italia Alice Qualifying Practice
Classification:
1. Valentino Rossi (Yamaha) 1’48.130: 2. Dani Pedrosa
(Honda) +0.167: 3. LORIS CAPIROSSI (RIZLA SUZUKI MOTOGP) +0.183:
4. Casey Stoner (Ducati) +0.245: 5. Colin Edwards (Yamaha)
+0.253: 11. CHRIS VERMEULEN (RIZLA SUZUKI MOTOGP) +1.090:
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