Rizla Suzuki MotoGP racers Loris Capirossi and Chris Vermeulen greatly improved their race pace during today’s final free practice session and the early part of this afternoon’s qualifying session, in readiness for tomorrow’s Spanish Grand Prix at Jerez.

Capirossi and Vermeulen will both start from the fourth row of the grid as they qualified in 10th and 12th places respectively, but their form on Bridgestone race tyres saw the Italian record the fourth fastest time whilst team-mate Vermeulen was seventh quickest this afternoon - before all riders switched to qualifying tyres.

Today’s sessions were again held in warm and sunny conditions with the track surface reaching 39ºC, as the air temperature rose to 25ºC. Capirossi and Vermeulen both worked on finding the best settings for their Suzuki GSV-R’s and despite starting from the fourth row believe that they have a good chance in tomorrow’s race.

Pole position today was set Spaniard Jorge Lorenzo on a factory Yamaha – his second successive pole position of the season.

Tomorrow’s 27-lap race is round two of the MotoGP World Championship and the event gets underway at 14.00hrs local time (12.00hrs GMT), when both Rizla Suzuki MotoGP riders will be aiming for glory.

Loris Capirossi:

“I think that if we look at our grid position it is not too good, but we are quite happy with the performance on race tyres. We are one of the best – if not the best – on Bridgestone race tyres on the track today and for sure tomorrow it will be harder to start on the fourth row but we are quite optimistic. The reason for this is because we have a good feeling here with the bike and we will certainly be trying as hard as we can to get a good result tomorrow.”

Chris Vermeulen:

“We had a good session on race tyres and we found something in the bike and with the Bridgestone tyres. We seem to have a good pace and we improved quite a bit during the session and I think there is more to come. With the qualifiers we made good time today, but it was nowhere near the front guys. It shows that we still have some work to do with the qualifying tyres – as we have had in the last few races! I am really happy with my race set-up, but unfortunately I’m on the fourth row of the grid so I will need a good start. I think I’d better get my elbows sharpened to make my way through!”

Paul Denning – Team Manager:

“There is an easy summary for today; we’re not happy with the positions and with the difficult job that will give the guys, but I’m really happy with the general competitiveness and how well the team and riders have responded this weekend in Jerez. Loris was one of the quickest guys on race tyres today and Chris was right up there as well - they have both got the potential to do really well tomorrow. A lot of that will depend on the start and the first couple of laps. Jerez is a tight and difficult place to pass, but I think our guys have a good package underneath them and they will be looking to significantly improve on these qualifying positions during the Grand Prix tomorrow!”

from Rizla Suzuki MotoGP