Vermeulen just misses second row start

After narrowly missing out on securing a second row start at Le Mans for Sunday’s race, Chris Vermeulen is determined to fight for another good result at the track where he was victorious in 2007. His Suzuki colleague Loris Capirossi is just behind him on the grid.

Chris Vermeulen – 7th

"Things went quite well all day today and this morning we took quite a big step forward with the bike. We tried to get everything working right as quickly as possible, but we had a sprinkle of rain this morning - so that was a bit of a pain - and we didn't quite get all the things done that we wanted to. This afternoon though was completely dry and the sun even popped its head out - which was nice! We got through everything we wanted to test on the bike and we got a bit more feeling which led to more confidence in the machine, then it was just down to doing fast lap-times. For me the soft rear tyre was the best for doing that and it felt quite consistent so it was the best tyre for qualifying - it might even be the race tyre. I am a bit disappointed to be back on the third row, but I've been getting good starts recently, so I need one of those tomorrow!"

Loris Capirossi – 8th

"We had a bit more luck today with the weather and that certainly helped us to get the settings for the bike sorted. We did a lot of good work on the bike and tried a couple of different settings to see which worked the best for here. In the end I pushed a bit harder and the lap-time improved, but I still have a problem in the last section - especially in the final couple of corners - and I am losing a bit of time there. We will analyse the data this evening to try to make the improvements I need for tomorrow and I know it is not so easy for me in the last part, but I am sure I can make it up. The team has done a great job this weekend and now it is up to me!"