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

Suzuki Day 3 Report

Rizla Suzuki MotoGP Racer Chris Vermeulen scored a stunning seventh place at today’s German GP after starting from 13th on the grid.

The rookie Australian was making his first visit to the Sachsenring circuit and had struggled to come to terms with the difficult layout, but he showed no signs of that during the race as he got off to a great start. He passed several riders on the first lap and was soon in the top 10. As the race progressed he made up more places and brought his Rizla Suzuki home at the front of a hard fought battle for seventh position.

John Hopkins also had a top 10 finish to consolidate his 10th position in the Championship. He too made a good start to the race and was pushing for a higher finish but as the race wore on the Anglo-American star had to fight for every place and battled hard to earn his 10th position.

Today’s race was held in warm and sunny conditions and the 93,000 plus fans were treated to a fantastic race that saw reigning World Champion Valentino Rossi emerge victorious. American Nicky Hayden still leads the championship.

Rizla Suzuki MotoGP now travels across the Atlantic for the USGP at Laguna Seca in California next weekend, for round 11 of the 2006 MotoGP World Championship on Sunday 23rd July.

Chris Vermeulen:
“I’m very happy with seventh position as this was the first time I’d been to the Sachsenring. We struggled a bit on Friday and I personally found it a difficult circuit to learn - the track was also perhaps not that well suited to our Suzuki. I had a good start and tried to follow Valentino through the gaps he made round the first few corners – we made up a few positions by doing that! After that I passed Sete Gibernau and then I was up behind John. He was going very fast but I managed to get past him at the end of the back straight and from then on I just stuck my head down and chased the front group. Our tyre dropped off a bit because we didn’t have as much experience as other teams due to the fact that I had never been here before. I would like to thank the whole team for how hard they worked this weekend as I know it has not been easy to get everything right and the result is as much down to them as it is me!”

John Hopkins:
“I’m not happy with 10th place but what can I say, this track has never been very kind to me before. I actually got a fairly average start but made good use of the first two turns, made up a few places and found myself close to the front group. I struggled to get the bike working well over the first couple of laps but once I got into a rhythm it felt quite comfortable. I was looking to hang on to Shinya and pull myself up to the top six. Unfortunately I wasn’t able to do that. No excuses, I would have liked to have done better, but now my mind is firmly focused on Laguna next weekend. Congratulations to Chris on another good ride, great job!”

Paul Denning – Team Manager:
“We didn’t quite get things nailed down as well as we would have liked to this weekend, but for both the Rizla Suzukis to finish in the top 10 and score valuable points was as good as we could have expected. Chris, on his first visit to Sachsenring, rode a fantastic race and his pace - until he lost a bit of grip - was not so far off the very best riders. I hope the result here today will give him good confidence before he goes to Laguna next weekend – a track he has done very well at on a Superbike before.

“John is disappointed with 10th but we’re a lot better off than we were 12 months ago here, when we left with a rake of injuries and no points! So, at least he is going to his home GP in California next weekend fighting fit and on a machine that should be well suited to the Laguna Seca circuit.

“Bridgestone again made a fantastic effort this weekend, bringing a massive range of new compound groups. It took us a step closer, it wasn’t quite enough, but we have to keep our heads down and focus on improving more over the next few races.”