MotoGP
German GP: Rizla Suzuki qualifying report
Rizla Suzuki MotoGP faces tough start in German Grand Prix Rizla Suzuki MotoGP racers Loris Capirossi and Chris Vermeulen will start from 13th and 14th places respectively on the grid for tomorrow's German Grand Prix after a tough qualifying ...
Edited: Jul 12, 2008, 11:41 PM
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Rizla Suzuki MotoGP faces tough start in German Grand Prix
Rizla Suzuki MotoGP racers Loris Capirossi and Chris Vermeulen will start from 13th and 14th places respectively on the grid for tomorrow's German Grand Prix after a tough qualifying session at Sachsenring today.
Capirossi (1'22.542, 29 laps) again had to overcome the pain and discomfort in his right arm as he fought with his Suzuki GSV-R and the demanding German circuit to find the best set-up for tomorrow's race. He worked hard with his crew and found a setting that he believes will suit him in Sunday's race and is confident of improving on his qualifying position in the 30-lap event.
Vermeulen (1'22,601, 32 laps) will start next to Capirossi on the fifth row as he was unable to improve upon his earlier good performance on race tyres when he used the qualifying tyres at the end of the session. Vermeulen had been consistently in the top-eight on race rubber in the early part of the hour-long session, but he just couldn't find the extra edge grip to improve on his times, and knows he has a tough job from the start tomorrow.
This afternoon's qualifying session was held in overcast conditions with track temperatures reaching 28ºC. World Champion Casey Stoner secured his third pole position in succession on his factory Ducati.
Tomorrow's German Grand Prix is round 10 of the season and the 30-lap race gets underway at 14.00hrs local time (12.00hrs GMT).
Loris Capirossi:
"It's been very difficult today, but I am quite happy because with the race tyre and the set-up we have a good rhythm. With the qualifiers we struggled a little bit, but on the race tyres we made a big step from yesterday and this is very important. My condition is still not too good, but I tried as hard as I could, but I don't really have the strength to give it 100%. It is important to follow on working on the things we have been doing this weekend and try as hard as we can tomorrow. This is a difficult track for us, but I am very positive about the race, and I will do my best as always!"
Chris Vermeulen:
"We made some progress with the bike on race tyres today and I picked up about three-quarters-of-a-second on my lap-times and that put me in the top seven or eight. It wasn't easy doing those times, but we could do them consistently on a used tyre. Unfortunately when we put in the qualifiers we weren't able to go any quicker and the last tyre just didn't seem to work at all, so we will need to look at that later with Bridgestone to figure out why. It sucks being so far back on the grid and it will be hard to get through on this track, but I'll be going for it from the start and plan to make sure I get up in the top 10 early on and see where we go from there!"
Paul Denning -- Team Manager:
"We took some good steps with the bike today, but it wasn't enough to get near the front guys in qualifying. We struggled to get any benefit from the qualifiers today, which given the fact that the same tyre is on pole clearly indicates that the issue is more ours than Bridgestone's - Chris's best lap on qualifiers was the same as on a pair of 14-lap old race tyres.
"Loris made a massive effort today, and again the team wants to say thank-you to him for his commitment. I think if he was 100% he'd be a bit closer to the pace, but as always his attitude gives the guys in the garage a buzz and we're all looking forward to seeing what he can achieve tomorrow!
"Chris's pace was much improved on race tyres today, so we will be focussing on further improvements tonight for both riders and try to salvage the best possible results in tomorrow's Grand Prix."
-credit: rizla suzuki
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