Vermeulen shows podium pace ahead of American contest

Chris Vermeulen, Loris Capirossi and wildcard rider Ben Spies review Saturday afternoon´s qualifying session at Laguna Seca.

Chris Vermeulen – Eighth

`Today went a lot better than yesterday and the steps we took worked quite well. We did some longer runs on race tyres and produced some good lap times. The times were a lot closer to Casey today and hopefully we can do that again tomorrow. The qualifiers just didn´t seem to work for me today and I couldn´t go any quicker on them than I did on the race rubber. It sucks starting from eighth position but if I can get a good first couple of laps, I know we can still fight for a podium!´

Loris Capirossi – Eleventh

`It would not be good to say I am happy today because in qualifying we struggled a bit, but we certainly did improve the bike in race set-up. We went a lot better on race tyres and I was in the top-five. The whole team has done a great job to find a good setting and we are confident that we have a good rhythm for tomorrow. Like I said yesterday, this track is not so easy with my arm, but I will certainly be giving it my best tomorrow and I think it will be a really interesting race and we could be right up there!´

Ben Spies - Thirteenth

`It went good today overall, I haven´t used qualifiers for a couple of years now and if I could have found a few more tenths I would have been a lot further forward, but I got blocked on a couple of my qualifying laps and made a mistake on my last one. It should be good for the race tomorrow as we´ve figured a few things out with the bike and we got down to a good time on the race tyres. The race set-up is certainly getting better and better and I am getting more comfortable on the bike every time I ride it, and I think I can get it in the top ten tomorrow!´