VERMEULEN CLOSE TO POLE PACE IN QATAR
07 April 2006 - Rizla-Suzuki

Rizla Suzuki MotoGP racer Chris Vermeulen qualified for tomorrow’s Commercialbank Grand Prix of Qatar just 0.673 seconds from pole position.

The rookie Australian set his best lap of the day in the final minute of this afternoon’s qualifying and, but for being held up by traffic, could have bettered the time. Vermeulen will start from the fourth row of the grid in 11th place for the second successive GP on his Rizla Suzuki GSV-R.

John Hopkins worked tirelessly all day but was hit with a series of technical difficulties that hampered his practice and qualifying sessions. His time of 1’56.981 smashed his own personal best at Qatar but was still outside of his own high standards and the aggressive Anglo-American will start from 13th on the grid.

Today’s qualifying was held in sunny and warm conditions with temperatures reaching 32°c. The pole position was set by another Australian rookie, Casey Stoner riding a Honda. Tomorrow’s race is one of only two Saturday races in 2006 and will start at 15.00hrs local time (14.00hrsCET).

Chris Vermeulen:

“I’m quite happy today because Qatar hasn’t been a good track in the past for Suzuki or Bridgestone. Being in 11th position doesn’t sound that great – and it’s a position that I have consistently found myself in at the last few GPs - but to be only 0.6 off pole is a good result. The team has worked really hard this weekend and the bike has got better and better. The race will be hard work, 22 laps in the heat, and to make a tyre last for that time will also be a test, but hopefully we’ve got a good enough set-up for race day and we can improve on this position tomorrow.”

John Hopkins:

“It’s difficult to give a quote when you feel as disappointed as I do at the moment. We have worked so hard this weekend and have been up against it from the start. With the qualifiers in I thought that at least we would get a good starting position, but when you can’t start the qualifying lap due to a technical difficulty there’s not much you can do. I am sure I’ll wake up tomorrow with my race head on and be going for it as usual. Congratulations to Chris on a great qualifying time, I think we both deserved a better position than we got.”

Paul Denning – Team Manager:

“I think for Chris to get within 0.6 of a second of pole is a great achievement, given what we have gone through this weekend so far. His position doesn’t quite reflect what might have been as he had to deal with traffic on his fastest lap. Unfortunately, in race trim the gap between us and the faster runners - in terms of consistency - will be greater than it was in qualifying. This is down to a number of reasons that the team can’t fix here at the track.

“John is bitterly disappointed, he’s faced similar problems to Chris and has worked extremely hard to get a more consistent and better performing package out of his Rizla Suzuki GSV-R all weekend. Unfortunately he suffered a technical fault just before he started his last lap or I’m sure we would have seen him improve considerably. The target for tomorrow has to be to score some good points and then move on to Turkey where the nature of the track should suit the bike more, and where Suzuki is also hoping to introduce the first stage of some much needed improvements.”

Commercialbank Grand Prix of Qatar Qualifying Practice Classification:

1. Casey Stoner (Honda) 1’55.683: 2. Loris Capirossi (Ducati) +0.038: 3. Toni Elias (Honda) +0.052: 4. Nicky Hayden (Honda) +0.110: 5. Dani Pedrosa (Honda) +0.325: 6. Valentino Rossi (Yamaha) +0.393: 7. Sete Gibernau (Ducati) +0.494: 8. Colin Edwards (Yamaha) +0.547: 9. Shinya Nakano (Kawasaki) +0.554: 10. Kenny Roberts Jr (KR211V) +0.589: 11. CHRIS VERMEULEN (RIZLA SUZUKI MOTOGP) +0.673: 13. JOHN HOPKINS (RIZLA SUZUKI MOTOGP) +1.298:

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