Due to the cool weather conditions experienced here at Valencia all weekend and the disappointing qualifying from both riders yesterday, this afternoon’s race was always going to be a difficult and demanding affair. Capirossi used the softer of the two Bridgestone compounds available to him for the 30-lap race, but was still unable to generate enough heat to give him the performance he required. He battled stoically throughout the whole race and his 14th place finish was scant reward for the hard work he has put in all weekend.

Vermeulen had hoped to leave the team with a good to result from his last appearance in Rizla Suzuki colours, but the Australian struggled as much as Capirossi to find the performance from his Suzuki GSV-R. Vermeulen crossed the line in 15th place to secure the one remaining point scoring position in the race and give him the small consolation of being the only rider to score points at every event this season.

Today’s race was held in cool and very windy conditions at the Ricardo Tormo circuit in Spain. Over 94,000 spectators witnessed a near faultless performance from home star Dani Pedrosa, as he led from start to finish to win his second Grand Prix of the year.

Rizla Suzuki will now regroup and restructure in time for a three-day test that begins at the Valencian circuit tomorrow, when new rider Alvaro Bautista will join the team to begin his career as a MotoGP rider.

Loris Capirossi:
“Before we got to Valencia our expectation was that it would be a bit tough here as the conditions would be quite cold and everything we expected seems to have come true. It was difficult in the practice as we tried to find a good setting, but just never got the feeling we wanted. I chose the softer tyre today, even though I didn’t have a good feeling in that – so you can imagine how difficult the hard one would have been to use! At the start of the race when the tyre was new everything felt not too bad and I tried to follow some guys , but as the grip levels dropped down I didn’t have complete control over the bike and struggled even more. I tried to defend my position but it felt like everyone could get past me, so all I did was try to make sure I finished the race. This result is not good for me, the team and Suzuki, because we try to work hard and we really want to have a result – so this feeling is not good. Thankfully, the good thing we have as a team is that we are strong inside and we know what our target is. We want to make sure we break everybody’s balls so that we can get to the front and we have to do it next year, because like this is just not good enough!

“I also want to say I feel sorry for Chris that he had to finish with this result. I have worked with him for two seasons and he is a great team-mate and we have a good friendship. We work well together and we check data all the time to try to improve the bike, so for me this is not a nice day. After two seasons it will be difficult to look over and see a different guy in my box, but this is the way life goes and I want to say good luck and welcome to Alvaro and hope we can work together as well as Chris and I have done.”

Chris Vermeulen:
“It has been a difficult weekend and the only positive I can take from it is that we definitely improved in the race from yesterday’s qualifying and managed to pass a few guys out there today. I was catching Loris towards the end of the race and I could see that he was struggling with a similar sort of situation as I was. Suzuki has got a lot of work to do to get this sorted, but I really hope they are able to do that, especially for all my crew who work so hard to get things right. I want thank everyone at Suzuki and in the team for what they have done in the last four years, we’ve had some good times – sadly today was not one of them unfortunately. I hope the guys get a lot of work done in the winter and come out much stronger. I also want to wish good luck to Loris and Alvaro for 2010; I have enjoyed working with Loris and will miss the friendship and rivalry that we had together.”

Paul Denning – Team Manager:
“I have nothing to say about today’s race! The 2010 season starts tomorrow and our huge differential in performance in low-grip conditions is clear for all to see. To get the consistency in the bike is the highest priority and along with Alvaro taking his first steps as a MotoGP rider tomorrow, our target is very clear.

“I’d like to thank Loris for riding at 100% all season and for being such a fantastic team player, the team will be doing everything in its power to push the Suzuki factory to give him the bike in 2010 that his efforts deserve. As for Chris, he has also been a huge asset to Suzuki for four years and we all wish him well as he takes a new direction in his career. He has always been the consummate professional – both on and off the track – and we wish him and his family well. He’ll always be welcome whenever he comes to visit.”

Video Interview with Chris Vermeulen after his final MotoGP race:

Capirossi (1’34.097, 25 laps) and Vermeulen (1’34.537, 29 laps) will start tomorrow’s 30-lap race from 13th and 18th on the grid respectively, after the pair struggled to get the Suzuki GSV-R to perform at its peak around the 4,005m Spanish circuit, despite their best efforts to find a satisfactory solution. Capirossi did produce his fastest lap of the day right at the very end of the session and still believes he can be in amongst the battle in tomorrow’s race, whilst Vermeulen will test a new setting in tomorrow’s warm-up to try and find the answers he is looking for.

The air temperatures only reached 22ºC today and a strong cool breeze kept the track below 30ºC for the whole qualifying session, this too caused problems for the Suzuki pair as they just couldn’t get enough heat in the tyres to help them get the optimum performance from the Bridgestone rubber. Casey Stoner secured his third successive pole position on his factory Ducati, with local favourites Dani Pedrosa and Jorge Lorenzo completing the front row.

Tomorrow’s race is the final round of the 2009 season and both Rizla Suzuki riders have a chance of finishing in seventh in the championship – along with Vermeulen having the opportunity of being the only rider this season to record a point scoring finish at every event – so the pair certainly have personal targets to aim for when the lights change to go at 14.00hrs local time (13.00hrs GMT).

Loris Capirossi:
“This is starting to feel normal for us because when we look at the data from the bike, always, always, always when it is cold it is nearly impossible to ride it and this is true again today! It is very cold today and the bike is not making the tyre work well and we have struggled a lot. The team has done a good job because we have tried many different things to get the best set-up, but we just couldn’t find the best result. I am quite upset and very frustrated, because we did our best today and we are still near the back of the grid. I feel optimistic for tomorrow and I will certainly fight for the best result in the race. What is most important now is that we work 100% on the 2010 bike, because finding the solutions at the moment for this bike is not very easy.”

Chris Vermeulen:
“I’m not happy to be qualifying in 18th and it has been a difficult weekend for us so far. We just can’t get a good feeling from the bike in these cold temperatures and the wind seems to be upsetting the bike a lot. It is difficult to get the tyres warm and although we’ve improved the bike, it is nowhere near enough. We have a bit of work to do tomorrow, but we’ve got something else we’ll try in warm-up and hopefully that is going to help us.”

Paul Denning – Team Manager:
“The result today is so disappointing and doesn’t reflect at all on the efforts and hard work of the team and riders. The trend of the bike simply not working well in colder and – in today’s case – much windier conditions has continued and I have say that the bike didn’t look at all pleasant to ride out there today. Suzuki has work to do to improve this situation and next week’s test and the start of preparations for 2010 can’t come soon enough!”

Video Interview with Chris Vermeulen on Valencia Qualifying 2009:

Capirossi and Vermeulen are only seperated by 3 points in the championship standings, so expect a strong race between the Rizla Suzuki riders as they compete to be the top team rider.

Loris Capirossi currently sits in eighth place in the championship race, but is level on points with current seventh place incumbent Marco Melandri, whilst team-mate Chris Vermeulen is only three points behind Capirossi in 11th place. With four other riders all in with a chance of seventh, the final round will certainly present a race within a race as the six will be going all out to get the best finish possible.

Vermeulen will be making his final appearance for Rizla Suzuki at Valencia and is in a determined mood to leave the team on a high. He is currently the only rider in this season’s championship to have scored in every round and will want to continue with that record as he aims to give his crew, the team, Suzuki and all the fans something to remember in his last outing on the Suzuki GSV-R.

Rizla Suzuki takes to the track on Friday afternoon and then Saturday morning for the two free practice sessions available to the riders. Saturday afternoon will feature an hour of qualifying to determine grid positions for Sunday’s 21-lap race. The main event gets underway at 14.00hrs local time (13.00hrs GMT) on Sunday 8th November.

Loris Capirossi:
“I am heading to Valencia in a totally fixed and determined state of mind. Last time at Malaysia was disappointing for the race, but the work we did in the dry leading up to race-day was very important and we will be able to use that info in Valencia. I am really confident that we can make a big impact at the last race and give the whole team something positive to take into the winter and on to 2010.”

Chris Vermeulen:
“I am totally focused on going out on a high at Valencia. This will be my last race in MotoGP – for at least a couple of years – and I want to make sure it is one that I can be proud of. My time with the Suzuki team has been great and my crew has worked tirelessly throughout my time here to give me the best bike they can whatever the conditions, so a good result will be as much for them as for myself. I have scored points in every race this year and want to make the last one the highest points scoring one. I will certainly be going for a podium this weekend, I know that will be tough, but that’s the target and one that I would really love to achieve!”

Loris Capirossi was left very disappointed with today’s result after such a promising qualification yesterday. He started from the second row of the grid and after the first two corners was up into second place, but Capirossi just couldn’t find the level of grip to maintain that advantage and was relegated down the field. He managed to find a rhythm and consistency in the second-half of the race and moved back into contention for a top-10 finish. Capirossi finally crossed the line in ninth position and was left to rue at what might have been if the weather had not intervened.

Today’s start was delayed by 40 minutes after torrential rain fell over the 5,548m Malaysian circuit. When the race finally got underway Ducati’s Casey Stoner took control and led from start to finish to win his second successive Grand Prix. Valentino Rossi finished third and secured enough points to take his second successive – and ninth in total – World Championship.

Rizla Suzuki now heads back to Europe for the final round of the MotoGP season, the last race will be held at Valencia in Spain on Sunday 8th November where Capirossi and Vermeulen will be battling it out with four other riders to secure a respectable seventh place overall in this season’s championship.

Chris Vermeulen:
“I got a good start, but in turn one there was a lot going on and I got pushed around a little bit, but I came out of it ok and was able to get my head down straight away. For the first four or five lap laps I really struggled to get a feeling in the tyres, especially on the left-hand-side, but once I got that working and in to a rhythm I felt quite good. The bike worked well up until the last few laps – when the track started to dry out – and then it was very difficult through the corners, but I’m sure it wasn’t easy for anyone out there. I think we had the speed for a top five today and my guys did a great job with the motorbike to be able to give me something competitive today when we hadn’t done any wet testing here at all.”

Loris Capirossi:
“I don’t really have a lot of things to say about today – I am just so disappointed! The team did such a good job this weekend and we thought we would have a good race this afternoon, especially after this morning’s warm-up was good as well, but then for the race it rained really hard. The set-up of the bike for the wet was pretty good but I struggled a lot for the first 10-laps because I couldn’t get any feeling from the left of the tyres. I dropped down to 13th and I then managed to overtake three or four riders and finish ninth. The result was not really good for this track and we weren’t lucky with the conditions, but sometimes things happen like that!”

Paul Denning – Team Manager:
“The drastic change in conditions for this afternoon was a disappointment, especially for Loris considering the outright speed he had shown this weekend. Even so, Chris rode a really strong race and had the speed to challenge for fifth if we’d have qualified a bit better or had a better feeling earlier in the race. Loris is devastated by the result today, but he kept fighting right to the end. The season has not been what we’d hoped, but there is a very tight fight for seventh in the championship that both of our guys are in with a chance of and we’ll be doing our best to get one of them there in two weeks’ time in Valencia.”

Video interview with Chris Vermeulen after Malaysian MotoGP:

Capirossi (2’01.716, 23 laps) made further changes to his Suzuki GSV-R in this morning’s final practice session to get the feeling he wanted around the 5,548m Malaysian track. He started this afternoon’s qualifying in determined mood and was never out of the top six for the whole hour. His fifth place on the grid is his best qualifying since Mugello in May and gives the experienced Italian a good chance of going for his 100th podium during tomorrow’s race.

Chris Vermeulen (P14, 2’03.032, 23 laps) will have a much tougher job than his team-mate in tomorrow’s 21-lap race after only managing to qualify on the fifth row. He just couldn’t find the feel or grip he wanted to make a serious challenge higher up the grid. Vermeulen will need to use all his racing ability and get a good start in tomorrow’s race if he is to make a competitive challenge in his penultimate race for Rizla Suzuki.
Today’s conditions were slightly warmer than yesterday as the air rose a couple of degrees to 34ºC, but the track stayed at 52ºC. Valentino Rossi took pole position as he goes in search of the result tomorrow that would give him the world championship title.

The Malaysian Grand Prix is the 16th and penultimate round on this season’s calendar, with tomorrow’s main event getting underway at 15.00hrs local time (07.00hrs GMT).

Loris Capirossi:
“We struggled a lot up until this afternoon’s qualifying practice, because we were always trying to find the best solution for setting-up the bike. We changed the front a little bit for this afternoon and immediately on the first run I knew the bike was really working well. I am quite happy with my lap-time, because it was hot this afternoon and the bike worked well. My rhythm is good around here and I think that tomorrow we have the chance to start well and make a really good race. I am happy and I want to say well done and a big thanks to all my crew, because they have done a great job today.”

Chris Vermeulen:
“It was a difficult and disappointing session out there this afternoon. We haven’t really improved on the bike from yesterday and it was hard work today. Most of the guys went a lot quicker on the softer tyres, but for me it was almost impossible to use it because I just couldn’t get the grip I wanted, so I carried on using the harder tyre – which we will use in the race – and that was a lot better. We know what pace we can run on in the race and we know our speed and potential lap-times, but unfortunately we’re starting from a long way back and it’s going to be tough.”

Paul Denning – Team Manager:
“It is amazing how things can change in just a few short days; the mood in the camp is now obviously a fair bit lighter than it was last Sunday evening! Loris did so well to come back from the situation last weekend and to push his – and the bike’s – limits to the full today. Middle of the second row and ‘best-of-the-rest’ status puts Loris in a great position to go with the front guys tomorrow and try to secure our best result of the season tomorrow afternoon.

“Chris has to be disappointed with the result, he’s better than that and as Loris has shown today – in these conditions and on this track – so is the bike. Over one second to your team-mate is a big gap and I hope that Chris comes out tomorrow with some fire in his eyes to show us what he can really do!”

Video interview with Chris Vermeulen on Sepang 2009 Qualifying:

Capirossi (2’03.253, 20 laps) made a good start to the first – and only – practice session on day one by heading the leader-board in the early part of the session. He made regular adjustments to his Suzuki GSV-R throughout the hour and is confident of making improvements to both the bike and his lap-time as the weekend progresses.

Chris Vermeulen (2’03.763, 21 laps) produced a solid first day’s work by posting the 10th fastest time of the day with his very last lap in the practice session. Vermeulen worked on the good base setting he had for the GSV-R from the winter test and made changes that suited the performance of the new bike, before using the harder compound Bridgestone tyre at the end of the session to good effect to improve on his time.

The hot and humid conditions that all the riders and teams expect at Sepang were prevalent today as the air rose to 31ºC and track temperatures got up to 52ºC. Jorge Lorenzo on his factory Yamaha recorded the fastest time of the day.

Rizla Suzuki has one more free practice session tomorrow morning, before an hour of qualifying in the afternoon will decide the grid positions for the race. Sunday’s main event will get underway at 15.00hrs local time (07.00hrs GMT).

Loris Capirossi:
“We did struggle a bit at the beginning as we tried to modify the bike, but the times were still quite good so we knew we were going in the right direction. Towards the end of the session the bike became a bit better, but it is still not perfect so we have a bit of work to do. We used two completely different traction controls, we didn’t quite get the best feeling from either of them but we certainly have a direction to follow tomorrow with the data we have got from them. Overall it has not been too bad today and we know we can improve quite a bit tomorrow, we have a good plan and if it all goes well we should have a really good weekend.”

Chris Vermeulen:
“It is good to come to a track that the bike performs well at. Obviously we have tested a lot here and that meant we had a good set-up right out of the box. We ran-in some important components during the first part of the session and made sure we got a reasonable feel from the bike. At the end of the session we stuck the harder rear tyre in and got a bit faster. I am reasonably happy with the first session; we’ve still got some areas to fix, so we’ll try a few different things tomorrow to hopefully get it right.”

Stuart Shenton – Crew Chief, Loris Capirossi:
“We have tried to put the disappointment of Phillip Island behind us and today’s session has gone some way towards that, but we still have a lot of work to do. We had a good pre-season test here earlier in the year and although the bike has progressed throughout the season we are hoping that we can get a good result from the new bike based on the settings we have from that test. First thing this afternoon we got through some runs that we needed to do to compare various things and we will look at the information from that this evening and see where we can make a difference. We need to make sure that we are ready for tomorrow and keep performing to the best of our ability and make things happen.”

Video interview with Chris Vermeulen on Malaysian GP Practice:

Following a tough weekend at Phillip Island which saw Chris Vermeulen and Loris Capirossi finish in 11th and 12th places respectively, the pair will be looking to put this firmly behind them at the 5,548m Sepang International Circuit.

Capirossi finished seventh in Malaysia last season after a race long battle with several other riders that saw the Italian racer in touch of a podium finish. Capirossi has tasted success at Sepang after winning the MotoGP race there in 2005 and also finishing runner-up the following year. Vermeulen has recorded a couple of top-10 finishes in Malaysia from his three previous visits and will certainly be aiming to improve on his ninth place last year.

The Sepang International Circuit was constructed in 1998, making it one of the most modern on the MotoGP calendar. It’s mix of 15 corners interlinked by two long straights either side of the most architecturally pleasing grandstands anywhere in motorsport make it one of the best tracks anywhere in the world and a favoured test track for most of the MotoGP teams.

Rizla Suzuki takes to the track on Friday – for the first of two free practice sessions – the second being held on the following morning. Qualifying for the 21-lap race will take place on Saturday afternoon, with the main event getting underway at 15.00hrs local time (07.00hrs GMT) on Sunday 25th October.

Chris Vermeulen:
“I’m looking forward to getting to Sepang and putting last weekend behind us. It’s a circuit we all know very well because we do a lot of testing there. It’s going to be very hot and humid – a lot different to Phillip Island – and the GSV-R has performed well there in the past so that’s what we’ll be looking to aim for. We have a good base setting so hopefully it will work out for us and we can be competitive from the start.”

Loris Capirossi:
“Sepang is a good track for the bike and for me because we did a very good winter test there and we are very optimistic about going there. The bike is very different now to the one we tested back then, but we want to try to go well – like we did in the winter – and I really believe we can push hard for a good result.”

Starting from 15th and 17th place on the grid respectively, Vermeulen and Capirossi set about the daunting task of making their way through the field. Both riders made passes as they tried to get a respectable result at the 4,448m track and also benefited from some misfortunes suffered by other riders to promote them further up the field. The Rizla Suzuki riders then got involved in their own personal battle, before Vermeulen came out on top by just over half-of-a-second to take 11th place from his team-mate.

A crowd of over 50,000 fans enjoyed bright sunshine for today’s race and witnessed home hero Casey Stoner take his third successive victory at Phillip Island. World Championship leader Valentino Rossi finished second to strengthen his grip on retaining his world title.

Rizla Suzuki will now regroup and head straight to Malaysia next weekend for the 16th round of the season on Sunday 25th October.

Chris Vermeulen:
“We went with the harder rear tyre because we didn’t notice a lot of difference between that and the softer one in practice, but in the first few laps we lost a lot of time as it took a lot to warm it. I was struggling, but then I had Loris on my tail for the rest of the race, so at least that gave us something to fight for. I had to ride consistently and make no mistakes, so with having Loris there kept me honest for the last few laps. Obviously we haven’t taken the step forward here that we wanted to, but hopefully it will be a lot better at Sepang.”

Loris Capirossi:
“It’s easy to say that today has been tough, but really we have struggled all weekend and never found the best solution. We also had an engine problem in the warm-up and that forced us to start on the back of the grid, but that was no big problem. My start was not too bad but I just didn’t have any feeling in the bike in the first five or six laps, so that was a nightmare for me. I caught up with Chris and we had a bit of a battle, but I couldn’t get past him. Overall this race track is very difficult for us and I think we need to forget this weekend because we tried as hard as we could and got nothing from it. I hope we will have a better weekend in Sepang because we really need a good result, but we also need to fix why things have been so bad here.”

Paul Denning – Team Manager:
“There’s nothing positive to be said about the performance here today and frankly speaking we only inherited 11th and 12th through the misfortune of others. I’d like to thank both the riders for keeping their heads down and trying as hard as they did in such difficult circumstances. The trip to Sepang can’t come quickly enough and we’ll be going there with an upbeat attitude to get things back in the right direction as quickly as possible!”

Video Interview with Chris Vermeulen on Australian MotoGP:

Capirossi (P13, 1’31.873, 30 laps) did make steps forward with his bike in the early part of the morning practice session, before heavy rained intervened, and was consistently posting times within the top-10. He continued with the programme for getting the best set-up during the qualifying session and although his times were comparable with the other riders on the harder compound of tyre, Capirossi was unable to make a big enough jump with the softer compound to propel himself up the grid.

Vermeulen (P15, 1’32.338, 29 laps) was left bitterly disappointed after his qualifying session this afternoon. He improved dramatically on his times from yesterday, but couldn’t find enough to get in a challenging grid position for tomorrow’s race. One positive note for Vermeulen was that when the heavy rain fell in the morning practice he was one of the fastest and most consistent riders in the wet and will almost certainly be in contention during tomorrow’s race if conditions like those of this morning repeat themselves.
Today’s qualifying was held in very overcast conditions with a threat of rain always in the air, a strong breeze blowing off the Pacific made conditions feel considerably cooler than they were and gave the venue a feel more like ‘Phillip Iceland’ than Phillip Island. Local hero Casey Stoner on his factory Ducati took pole position as he goes in search of his third successive home GP victory.

Tomorrow’s 27-lap race will get underway at 16.00hrs local time (05.00hrs GMT) with both Rizla Suzuki riders looking to make a good start to give them a fighting chance of a competitive race and higher places than their grid positions.

Loris Capirossi:
“It was another tough day for us today, even though we did make another step with the overall setting of the bike. During the morning session we were making some good progress, but after 30 minutes it started to rain and ruined what we were doing. In the qualifying the conditions were better and we made some good runs with the harder compound tyre and it wasn’t too bad for us, but when we tried to go quicker with the softer one we just couldn’t make a big difference. We struggled on the left corners because we were spinning a lot and we need to find a good solution to give us better traction. We have improved the feeling from the front compared to yesterday, but it is not enough because we need better traction to go faster. It is bad to be starting so far back, but for sure in tomorrow’s race I won’t finish in the same place in the race as I did in the qualifying!”

Chris Vermeulen:
“We had difficult weather this afternoon; the rain could have come at any moment just like it did this morning. We did a few laps in the wet this morning – in fact I think I was the first one out – and the bike felt pretty good and I managed to get lots of information if it’s wet tomorrow. In the dry it was tough in qualifying and we’re really struggling with rear grip on the left-hand-side and the performance of the tyre seems to drop off after only a few laps, so we need to try and improve on that. We tried some things today that helped a bit and we went over a second quicker than we did yesterday, but it’s still not where we need to be. We need to find some positives from today and go and give it 100% tomorrow.”

Paul Denning – Team Manager:
“Phillip Island has been our nemesis over the last few years and I am now starting to dislike the place as much as our bike obviously does! There is no hiding the fact that the qualifying result is a disaster, but it’s also true that we have taken a decent step compared to 2008 and the difference in our lap-time to pole position and the second row shows that. Unfortunately lap-times count for nothing and the positions are not where they should be. The only silver lining is that if it’s dry we have a similar pace to a lot of the field on the harder tyre and everyone else seemed to find a big step on the softer compound to give them better grid positions, so fingers crossed we’ll be able to keep reasonable consistency in the race and try to aim at least for the top-10.”

Video Interview with Chris Vermeulen on Phillip Island Qualifying 2009:

Capirossi (1’32.606, 25 laps) used both of his Suzuki GSV-Rs throughout the session to find a good base setting at the 4,448m Phillip Island circuit. His best time came on his last lap of the day as the modifications his crew made to the bike started to come to fruition and leave the number 65 racer with a clear indication on the route to take for the rest of the weekend.

Chris Vermeulen (P15, 1’33.504, 24 laps) had an unfortunate first day at his home Grand Prix, as he too struggled to get the best set-up for his GSV-R at the fastest track on the calendar. A setback with one of his bikes meant he only had a single machine for most of the session and was unable to test the different setting geometries that he wanted to. Vermeulen is still upbeat that he will improve dramatically over the weekend as he looks to bow out of his final home Grand Prix in style.

Today’s single practice session was held in conditions that kept the local penguin community comfortable as air temperatures only got up to a maximum of 17ºC. World Championship leader Valentino Rossi on his factory Yamaha recorded the fastest time of the day.

Loris Capirossi:
“Overall it has been a tough day, especially the first 45 minutes of the session, because we really struggled to get the set-up of the bike working. We had to change a lot on both bikes and in the end we did some big modifications and made some good steps with the set-up. We are not very close to the top guys, but we now understand where we can improve over the weekend. We were quite lucky with the weather today as well because it has been very bad here for the last couple of days. The temperature was not too bad today and the tyres still had to work quite hard, if it had been five degrees less it would have been almost impossible to ride. We hope we get some good weather tomorrow so we can continue with the improvements we were making and be able to challenge over the weekend.”

Chris Vermeulen:
“At the beginning of the session the bike didn’t feel too bad and we made some small changes to the suspension, but when I went back out there was a few drops of rain so I did a slower lap. Unfortunately I had a problem with that bike and I wasn’t able to use it again. I then got on to my other bike – which took a bit of time because we had to swap over some components from the first bike – and it then became a matter of getting that bike and set-up working for me. We certainly have a direction for tomorrow and if we’d had both bikes for the whole session I’m sure we would have tried those things, but I’m sure we’ll be ok for tomorrow and go a whole lot quicker.”

Paul Denning – Team Manager:
“It wasn’t easy at all today and it felt like the hour really rushed by and we never really found the opportunity to fine-tune the bikes in the way we would have liked. Since the new chassis was introduced in Brno we have had to go to every track and pretty much ignore the base settings we have from 2008 or the winter tests. At the start of the session the guesstimates weren’t quite right and we spent most of the hour trying to find the best solutions. We’ve still got some big steps to make, but the direction found towards the end of the session is going to help us start on a much better footing tomorrow and hopefully close the gap to the fast guys.”

Video interview with Chris Vermeulen after Phillip Island MotoGP Practice Session: