Hard fought fifth for Vermeulen in San Marino

Starting from seventh on the grid at Misano on Sunday, Chris Vermeulen made a good start and was up with the leading pack early on, but a huge high-side threw the Australian out of the seat of his bike on the second corner.

Vermeulen landed back on his bike but he had lost several places and was back in thirteenth position at the end of the first lap. Vermeulen stormed through the field to bring his Suzuki GSV-R home for eleven hard-earned points which promote him to sixth in the World Championship table.

Loris Capirossi marked his 277th Grand Prix race with a typical battling performance as he finished an impressive seventh after starting from eleventh on the grid.

Chris Vermeulen - sixth

`I got a good start and, although I got pushed a bit wide in the first turn, I still thought I´d hold on to my position but as I entered turn two the rear tyre was just not warm enough and I had a big slide. I thought it was all over then, but luckily I landed back on the bike and although I smashed the fairing with my leg no harm was done! I didn´t quite have the pace that I have had this weekend which was probably due to the higher temperatures, and we certainly slid around a bit more today! This is the first time we have raced with the new chassis and with the new construction front tyre that Bridgestone brought here for us, so with all things considered - and from where I ended the first lap - I think we had a good race. The tyres worked especially well and I did my fastest time on lap 25 out of the 28 – it was just a shame I wasn´t with the front group from the beginning or things might have been very different!´

Loris Capirossi - seventh

`It has been quite a hard weekend for me as we have been working a lot on the new chassis and getting it right. I really want to thank my team as they have all worked so hard to get it the best it can be. I think maybe we changed too many things on the bike and lost our way a bit, but at the end the bike seemed to work ok. This morning during warm-up we went back a bit and then on the grid I had to change my front tyre and had to start with a new one that didn´t have the right feeling to start with. The tyre soon got better and in the end I didn´t go too badly! I made a big fight on the last lap and tried to overtake, but I made a little mistake and couldn´t quite hold it, but for my 277th Grand Prix it was not too bad!´