Rizla Suzuki MotoGP is on its way to Le Mans in France, looking to emulate the result achieved by Chris Vermeulen last season.

Vermeulen stormed to his maiden Grand Prix victory at the famous French circuit, a result that also gave Suzuki its first-ever victory in MotoGP since the introduction of the four-stroke regulations.

Loris Capirossi will be planning to continue with the impressive race form he has shown this season since joining Suzuki. The Italian racer also tasted recent podium success at the French track when he finished second in 2006.

The historic Le Mans circuit has had some modifications to the layout in readiness for the next round of the MotoGP World Championship. The alterations have been made to improve safety over the revised new lap length of 4,185m. Le Mans will still retain its unique character as the most ‘stop-and-go’ circuit on the calendar, with hard braking points, slow corners and one turn taken flat-out in top-gear. It is certainly one of the most physically demanding tracks used in MotoGP.

Rizla Suzuki MotoGP takes to the track on Friday 16th May for two free practice sessions, followed by another free session on Saturday morning and an hour of qualifying in the afternoon. Sunday’s 28-lap race gets underway at 14.00hrs local time (12.00hrs GMT).

Chris Vermeulen:

“I am looking forward to getting to Le Mans, not just because of the good memories of my first MotoGP win there, but because we need to get back on the bike and try to get the GSV-R as competitive as it can be. I was really disappointed after Shanghai, but I know the Suzuki staff have been working hard to find out the cause of the problem and I’m sure that won’t happen again. The results we are getting are not what we all deserve for all the hard work that we are putting in, maybe we just need that bit of luck to go our way - so what better place than Le Mans for that to happen."

Loris Capirossi:

“The performance at Shanghai showed that we are close to the front guys now and the GSV-R is becoming more and more competitive at each event. Both Chris and I could have had much better results but for my mistake and the problems that we had in the race. I believe the bike is very capable of running at the front and we need to start getting the positions that we want. Everybody at Suzuki is working so hard to make it happen and I want to be part of it!”