US GP: Suzuki preview

Rizla Suzuki heads straight across the globe for the American Grand Prix

Rizla Suzuki has crossed the Atlantic to prepare for the next round of the MotoGP World Championship to be held at Laguna Seca in America.

Alvaro Bautista will be heading the famous Californian circuit to race for the first time in his career. He has visited the 3,610m track as a spectator before, but has never raced there - due to the fact that 125 and 250cc machines haven't travelled to Laguna with the MotoGP class. Bautista will be looking to learn the 11 corners of the circuit very quickly, especially the feature section of the track -- The infamous 'Corkscrew'.

Loris Capirossi is determined to put the lessons learnt at Barcelona and Sachsenring recently to good use in America. He is sure that the improvements made at the previous races will make both the Suzuki GSV-R and himself more competitive over the second half of the season.

Laguna Seca is situated near the town of Monterey in California, just a few kilometres from the Pacific Ocean. It is one of the shortest lap distances on the calendar and because of this the riders will face the most laps in any race this season, when they tackle 32 circulations of this very demanding circuit.

The action begins at Laguna on Friday with an hour of practice in the afternoon, followed by a further hour in preparation for the race on Saturday morning. The afternoon will see qualifying take place as the riders battle it out for the best grid position for Sunday's main event, which will get underway at 14.00hrs local time (21.00hrs GMT).

Alvaro Bautista:

"I am really looking forward to going to Laguna Seca, it looks like an amazing track and very complicated. I have been there before, but never raced, so this is a completely new experience for me. The Corkscrew is quite a scary looking turn, so I cannot wait to get my bike down that -- I am sure it will be a fantastic feeling. I know it will be difficult this weekend, but we will continue with the way we have been working recently and carry on learning what the bike and I am capable of doing."

Loris Capirossi:

"We must quickly put the final part of last Sunday's race behind us and focus on what happened in the first part when the bike worked the best it had done all weekend. We are very close to finding the solution we are looking for to make us fully competitive. I know we can run at the front of the field because the bike has the performance to be able to do that, we just need to get the settings right and I'm sure we'll be right in amongst the fight."

-source: rizla suzuki