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Tough qualifying for Rizla Suzuki MotoGP at Estoril |
Suzuki-MotoGP: Latest News
15 September 2007
Tough qualifying for Rizla Suzuki MotoGP at Estoril
Rizla Suzuki MotoGP will start tomorrow's Portuguese Grand Prix from
either end of
the fourth row of the grid following a difficult qualifying session at
Estoril
today.
Hopkins (P10, 1'37.280, 27 laps) will start from the front of the fourth
row after a
mistake on his final qualifying tyre cost him valuable tenths of a
second that could
have seen him much higher up the grid. Suzuki's Anglo-American star
topped the
time-sheets early on in the session – when all riders were using race
tyres – and is
confident that he can perform at a high pace during tomorrow's 28-lap
race.
Vermeulen (P12, 1'37.365, 24 laps) struggled to overcome some vibration
issues on
his GSV-R during the day, but is convinced his crew have the necessary
information
from today's testing to overcome the situation in readiness for tomorrow
afternoon.
Today's qualifying was held in warm and sunny conditions with track
temperatures
reaching 49°C. Reigning World Champion Nicky Hayden will start from pole
position on
his factory Honda, when the lights change to go for the start of round
14 of the
MotoGP World Championship at 15.00hrs local time (14.00hrs GMT)
tomorrow.
John Hopkins:
"The practice today went alright as far as getting a race set-up. We've
done the
best times we've done all weekend and the bike is feeling really good.
We made a
couple of changes and I altered my lines around here and everything
seemed to come
together on the race tyres. I still need to improve through section four
on the
track. It's nothing to do with the set-up of the bike it is totally down
to me to
make some line changes and get an extra three or four tenths through
there. I'll be
thinking about that overnight and try and figure out what's going on and
how to
improve it. If tomorrow is a dry race we are really confident that we
have a good
tyre for the 28 laps so it will be down to me getting a good start and
making my way
up to the front group. As far as qualifying this afternoon it just
didn't happen
today. On my last tyre I just ran a bit too hard on my out lap and
messed up the
edge grip, but that's just the way it goes. I'll be looking to make up
as many
positions as I can from the start and I can assure you I'll be running a
good pace
tomorrow!"
Chris Vermeulen:
"Being on the fourth row is certainly not the position we wanted to be
in. It's
going to be tough tomorrow, but I'll be up for it. We are having a few
handling
issues this weekend and we're suffering from a bit of chatter. There
were some parts
of the track where I didn't know if the bike would vibrate or just hold
its line and
it made things a bit difficult. We haven't had anything like this all
year, but Tom
and the guys know what they are doing and I'm sure with all today's data
we will be
able to fix it before tomorrow. It's going to be hard work for both John
and I
starting back there. We'll have to be a bit aggressive over the first
few laps and
try and make our way through."
Paul Denning – Team Manager:
"Having two bikes on the fourth row is not the result we were looking
for today, but
I don't believe it tells the true story of either the bike's or the
riders'
potential. It's never easy starting from further down the grid to
achieve a top
result. Both the guys have shown all season that they have got superb
fitness and a
very aggressive race strategy so I am sure you will see both of them
forcing their
way towards the front group as quickly as possible.
"We basically didn't take the step forward this afternoon that our
competitors did
on qualifying tyres, but 28 laps will be a long way around the Estoril
track
tomorrow and we are optimistic that Rizla Suzuki's qualifying positions
will be
drastically improved on in the race tomorrow."
bwin.com Grande Premio de Portugal Qualifying Practice Classification:
1. Nicky Hayden (Honda) 1'36.301: 2. Casey Stoner (Ducati) +0.040: 3.
Valentino
Rossi (Yamaha) +0.275: 4. Makoto Tamada (Yamaha) +0.435: 5. Dani Pedrosa
(Honda)
+0.528: 10. JOHN HOPKINS (RIZLA SUZUKI MOTOGP) +0.979: 12. CHRIS
VERMEULEN (RIZLA
SUZUKI MOTOGP) +1.064:
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