German GP: Suzuki race report

Capirossi eleventh as unlucky Bautista forced to retire

Rizla Suzuki racer Loris Capirossi brought his Suzuki GSV-R home in 11th place during today's German Grand Prix, whilst team-mate Alvaro Bautista was forced to miss the second half of a two-part race following a red flag incident.

Capirossi and Bautista were both battling for top-10 finishes during the first part of the race and the latter had just posted his fastest lap, before Randy de Puniet crashed on lap 10. Capirossi was in close vicinity to the accident but missed the falling rider, however Bautista was not so fortunate and had to take evasive action to avoid de Puniet, but couldn't avoid the stricken Honda. The race was immediately red flagged due to de Puniet's injuries and the three crashed motorcycles on the track -- Aleix Espargaro was also involved in the incident. Sadly for Bautista and Espargaro they were unable to join the re-start, due to the regulations, and had to sit out the second part of the race.

Capirossi began part two of the race -- which had now been reduced to 21-laps -- from 11th on the grid, but he was unable to find any grip from the tyre he used for the re-start and wasn't able to make any advances through the field.

Today's incident filled race at Sachsenring was watched by 98,477 fans in warm but overcast conditions. They saw Spaniard Dani Pedrosa win from World Championship leader Jorge Lorenzo.

Rizla Suzuki now immediately embarks on a transatlantic journey to Laguna Seca in California for the ninth round of the MotoGP World Championship to be held next Sunday.

Alvaro Bautista:

"It has been a bit of a disaster today. I didn't start that well and I couldn't get enough warmth in the right-side of the tyre early on. After the first few laps I managed to get a good rhythm and was able to stay with the group for top-10 positions. After nine laps Randy crashed and I had some riders in front of me and I couldn't see where his bike was on the track, but when the other riders disappeared I saw the bike in front of me and I couldn't do anything to avoid it, so I crashed. I then couldn't get to the box with my bike, so I couldn't start again. The regulation is the regulation, but in this case maybe there could've been an exception because I crashed because of Randy not for something I had done. We must continue learning, like we have done this weekend, because at the moment this is the most important thing."

Loris Capirossi:

"Overall we worked quite hard this weekend to find the best setting and we wanted to make a modification today for the race in warm-up, but unfortunately it was wet so we couldn't try it. We decided to try a different setting in the race and some electronic modifications and in the first part of the race it worked really well. It was the best the bike had been all weekend and I had a good feeling and was sure I could get past some of the guys in front of me. After the red flag we decided to change to a used tyre from yesterday because there were no new ones left, and it just didn't work and I had no feeling at all from the beginning until the end -- zero grip! I ended up fighting with de Angelis to keep my place. This result is a bad position for us, but overall we have learned a lot of things today. I think without the stop in the race our result today would've been much better."

Paul Denning -- Team Manager:

"We knew that the potential had at least improved following Barcelona, but today was massively frustrating. In the first part of the race both the guys found a good rhythm and were able to race with the group from sixth place backwards. Alvaro had just set his fastest lap when the accident happened and whilst we respect the rule book completely, I would imagine there will be some careful discussion for the future, because with only 17 bikes on the grid it is definitely a problem for the show to have fit riders and good bikes sat in the pit after an incident like that when they should be out there racing.

"The second part of the race was a disaster for Loris from the very first lap, he used a tyre that had done a few laps yesterday, but he just couldn't get any grip at all and that stayed the same for the full race distance, He toughed it out and brought the bike home, but all-in-all it was a disappointing end, given the potential the two riders showed in the first part of the race."

-source: rizla suzuki