Vermeulen eighth as Spies scores first points
Sunday, 22 June 2008
The bwin.com British Grand Prix weekend was a great learning experience for Ben Spies, whilst Chris Vermeulen battled to eighth for Rizla Suzuki at Donington Park.
Rizla Suzuki´s Chris Vermeulen could not capitalise on his front row start on Sunday at Donington Park, unable to repeat last year´s podium in England as he came home in eighth place, six ahead of stand-in team-mate Ben Spies who scored points in his first-ever MotoGP race.
Vermeulen was looking comfortable in sixth place for several laps, but as grip reduced he was unable to fight off the attacks from riders around him, and even though he fought right to the chequered flag he was unable to find that extra bit of drive he needed to hold on to a higher position.
Spies acquitted himself very well at his first-ever Grand Prix, the 23-year-old American continuing with his steep learning curve to bring his Rizla Suzuki GSV-R home safely in fourteenth. He had a tough start to the race, but settled into a smooth rhythm by half distance and then produced his fastest time on the 21st lap.
At the A-Style TT Assen next Saturday Loris Capirossi hopes to make a return to action following his crash at Catalunya earlier this month which sidelined him for today´s race with a broken hand.
Chris Vermeulen – eighth
`It was a difficult race today as we hadn´t had a lot of track time in the dry to prepare for it. For me though we have taken a big step with the bike compared to here last year in the dry - that had a lot to do with the Barcelona test and what we learnt there. I´ve got to say a big thanks to my team because they worked so hard this weekend and gave me a bike that worked really well considering the little amount of set-up time we had. Unfortunately we didn´t have the pace of the front guys, and although I rode as hard as I could for the whole race it just didn´t quite happen. Towards the end we didn´t have much grip left in the rear tyre, which was unfortunate because I felt like I had the pace to fight with other riders around me. Let´s now move on to Assen next week and see how things go there.´
Ben Spies - fourteenth
`It was a tough race as I was still trying to learn the tyres, the bike and the track in the first few laps. The first half of the race felt like garbage to me, but the second half was really good! I was running times towards the end that would have put us in the top ten so I´m quite pleased with that. I was catching the guys in front and reeling them in lap-by-lap, but I just didn´t have enough laps to get up and past them. I was definitely getting more comfortable on the bike and even though the result wasn´t what I wanted the times at the end were really fast and I´m happy with that.´
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