Rizla Suzuki press release:

Rizla Suzuki MotoGP heads to the Far East for the second round of the 2009 season as the MotoGP World Championship moves to Suzuki’s ancestral home of Japan, with the team aiming for good results.

Loris Capirossi and Chris Vermeulen will be looking to give the management and staff of Suzuki a result to be proud of to mark the 100th anniversary of Suzuki opening for business as a loom works in 1909. Capirossi is a three-time winner at the 4,801m Twin-Ring Motegi Circuit, and is planning to use his experience and expertise at the track to push Suzuki’s revitalised GSV-R on to another good result.

Vermeulen is setting his sights on improving on his recent results at Motegi that has seen him score a race-best of 11th. His strong start to the season at Qatar where he scored a hard-fought seventh will give the Australian confidence as he heads to the land of the rising sun.

The Twin-Ring Motegi Circuit is situated between the Japanese cities of Mito and Utsunomiya; it is about a three-hour drive from Tokyo – even though it is only about 90kms away! It is one of the safest tracks on the MotoGP calendar, with a fast set of ess bends, a sneaky hairpin and a demanding 90º bend at the end of a long downhill straight all designed to get the most from rider, machine and tyres. A colourful crowd is always on hand to make sure the event is a true spectacle.

Rizla Suzuki will take to the track at Motegi on Friday afternoon for the first of two 45-minute free practice sessions. The second is on Saturday morning, followed by 45-minutes of qualifying in the afternoon. Sunday’s 24-lap race gets underway at 15.00hrs local time (06.00hrs GMT).

Loris Capirossi:

“After what happened in Qatar, we now go to a track that I know well and have had lots of good times at. I was very disappointed at Losail but that race has gone now and we have had time to see what happened. I hope I can have a very good result in Japan for the Suzuki guys that have put in all the hard work in the winter to give us a bike that we can now be competitive on. I have won here before and want to do it again, so I will be making sure we get everything right for race-day to give us the best possible chance of achieving that!”

Chris Vermeulen:
“It is really important to get back on the bike as soon as possible and try to rectify the issues we had in the race at Qatar. The bike was working well all weekend, but it seemed to feel very different in the race. The Factory has been working hard since then and there will be a lot of extra staff at the race in Motegi so we won’t be short of a helping hand! I really want to give Suzuki a good result at its home Grand Prix and I am sure that we will this year. I am looking forward to going there as I really enjoy racing in Japan and will be doing my best to get the bike on the podium!”