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VERMEULEN WINS AT LE MANS |
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Sunday, 20 May 2007 |
VERMEULEN WINS AT LE MANS
 Chris Vermeulen raced to his and Rizla Suzuki MotoGP's first Grand Prix win at a rain-soaked Le Mans today.
Vermeulen
rode an almost faultless race in the wet after heavy rain started to
fall over the 4.180km French circuit. He entered pit-lane at the end of
lap nine to change to his wet-weather prepared Suzuki GSV-R. Within two
laps he hit the front and never looked under threat all the way to the
chequered flag, the impressive Australian finishing the race over 12
seconds in front of the second-placed man Marco Melandri. World
Championship leader Casey Stoner finished third to give Bridgestone
tyres a clean sweep on the podium.
Vermeulen now moves up to
fifth place in the MotoGP World Championship with Rizla Suzuki MotoGP
going up to third in the team's championship.
John Hopkins
looked like he was going to follow up his podium at China last time out
with another one today. He produced a number of stunning laps -
including the fastest lap of the race - to move into first place on lap
nine. After he entered the pit-lane on the next lap to change to his
wet bike, he was unable to sustain his momentum and also suffered with
a few issues with the set-up of his GSV-R.
Hopkins brought his
bike home in seventh place for his fourth top-seven finish of the year,
a result that puts him into sixth place in the overall classification.
Rizla
Suzuki MotoGP will now stay in France for a day of testing before the
MotoGP circus moves across Europe for round six of the championship at
Mugello in Italy on Sunday June 3rd.
Chris Vermeulen:
“I'm
absolutely over the moon! I am really happy for myself, my crew and
everyone involved in the team. We'd had a difficult weekend coming into
the race as not everything quite went to plan - but we were getting
quicker and quicker and I'm sure if it had been dry today we would have
improved more. The conditions were slippery to start with and it was
difficult to know how hard to push. Some guys came past me and then a
lap or so later they crashed! It started to rain quite heavy and I
decided to come in and change my bike. I came back out and just stuck
my head down and tried to get the tyres up to heat up as quick as
possible. The bike felt really good in the rain, but as it got heavier
it made it hard to hold the bike in top gear down the straight - there
was so much water it was just spinning the rear! Tom O'Kane - my Crew
Chief - and the rest of the guys gave me a really good wet bike today
as we hadn't done much wet testing with the new 800. The tyre choice
was spot-on and the bike was certainly good enough to win on!”
John Hopkins:
“Firstly
I want to say well done to Chris and well done to Suzuki for standing
on top of the podium. It is certainly an achievement to stand on the
podium two races in a row; hopefully we can carry that streak on
together. As for the race we chose one of the hardest slick rear tyres
that we had, so I had to take it easy to get it up to temperature. Once
it was there and I had confidence in it I was able to go from 12th to
first in a short space of time. Everything was going fine until it
started raining harder. I think we made the right decision when to come
in to change the bike. I tried to get used to riding in the wet and it
all seemed to be going alright, but we had some minor adjustment
problems that hindered us a bit. At the end of the day I kept it on two
wheels and finished the race with some good points. We will take the
positives from this weekend and although I am disappointed to finish
where I did after all the hard work we put in in the dry, it's now time
to move onto a lot of tracks that I enjoy and continue this podium
streak for Rizla Suzuki!”
Paul Denning- Team Manager:
“Well
done to Chris, to the whole team and to Suzuki for producing a
motorcycle that is capable of producing podiums in both wet and dry
conditions. It may have looked a bit 'on the edge' on television in
some of the corners, but Chris assures us that he had it all under
control out there. I will take his word for that as it was him out
there and not me! He showed again his true level of bike control and
talent. This should give him the confidence to push towards the front
in all conditions over the busy weeks ahead.
“Seventh was not so
bad for John, but I really feel for him given that his performance
level was that of a podium finisher all weekend. He had some small
issues with the wet bike, but he had shown his determination to get to
the front and win a GP by coming from 12th to first in a matter of laps
before the rain really started.
“We still have a lot to do in
the test tomorrow and we hope it dries up enough to get through that
programme. The whole team is certainly on a high at the moment and is
heading towards Mugello looking for more of the same.”
Alice Grand Prix de France Race Classification: 1. Chris Vermeulen (Rizla Suzuki MotoGP) 50'58.713:
2. Marco Melandri (Honda) +12.599: 3. Casey Stoner (Ducati) +27.347: 4.
Dani Pedrosa (Honda) +37.328: 5. Alex Hofmann +49.166. 7 John Hopkins (Rizla Suzuki MotoGP) +1'01.073.
World Championship Classification: 1. Stoner 102: 2. Valentino Rossi (Yamaha) 81: 3. Pedrosa 62: 4. Melandri 61: 5. Chris Vermeulen (Rizla Suzuki MotoGP) 55: 6. John Hopkins (Rizla Suzuki MotoGP) 48.
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