2006 Australian Superbike Championship (YMF Loan) - Round Four - Queensland Raceway

Suzuki Day 2 Report

Rizla Suzuki MotoGP racers John Hopkins and Chris Vermeulen will start tomorrow’s German Grand Prix from rows three and five respectively, as both riders found the going hard during today’s qualifying session.

Hopkins (P9, 1’22.701) was looking to continue his good run of form from recent qualifying sessions but was unable to find the extra speed needed from his Suzuki GSV-R to push him nearer the front. He had spent the morning practice session trying various set-ups in readiness for tomorrow’s 30 lap race and worked hard with his crew to find the best solution and the correct Bridgestone tyre, for what looks like being a very demanding afternoon’s work.

Vermeulen (P14, 1’23.050) improved his fastest time today by over two seconds on his Friday best. Although he struggled to find the extra that he needed to get further up the grid he did get in a long run during the afternoon session and was happy with the tyre he has found for tomorrow.

Today’s sessions were held in sunny and warm conditions with track surface temperatures reaching 27°C. The pole position time was set by Dani Pedrosa on a Honda.

The betandwin.com Motorrad GP Deutschland is round 10 of the MotoGP World Championship and the lights will change to go at 12.30hrs local time (10.30hrsGMT) on Sunday 16th July.

John Hopkins:
“I can’t say I’m ecstatic with the position as we’re starting from the third row! We had a few little set-up problems. We changed something this morning and it didn’t really work how we wanted it to, so we had to change it back and lost a bit of track time. After that we worked hard with Bridgestone to find the best tyres. I would like to have another half a second on race tyres, but we are working as hard as we can and Bridgestone has brought us some good stuff. We will have a good think about it overnight and I’ll get a good night’s rest and come out stronger tomorrow. We may try some things in the morning to get a better situation, but at the end of the day when the flag drops all I can do is give it my best shot!”

Chris Vermeulen:
“Not our best qualifying of the year but it was another circuit I didn’t know. We made big steps from yesterday to today, both in set-up and lap times. We have got a tyre for the race as I did a long run in this afternoon’s session, and I feel quite confident with it. We have struggled here a bit with a few things but my mechanics and the whole team are working hard to get it right. We have a few things to try tomorrow and hopefully they will work.”

Paul Denning – Team Manager:
“Both the guys pushed very hard and did their absolute best this afternoon, but ultimately it wasn’t enough to put Rizla Suzuki as close to the front as we would want to be in qualifying. We came to Sachsenring expecting it to be tough for various reasons and the result today has probably met our expectation. A combination of factors is restricting the riders from finding the pace they need to take a significant step forward. We are going to need to burn the midnight oil to try to find some solutions before the morning. The race is very long at 30 laps and will be very physical, but we will be doing all we can in the warm-up to make sure we can run at a consistent pace and bring home as many points as possible.”