Cold temperatures leave Bautista and Suzuki struggling

Rizla Suzuki suffered a tough qualifying session during its home Grand Prix at Silverstone in England today as a lack of grip in the cool temperatures left both riders with a mountain to climb on race-day.

Loris Capirossi (P14. 2’05.821, 23 laps) and Álvaro Bautista (P15. 2’06.607, 21 laps) will start side-by-side on the fifth row of the grip after failing to get the grip they both wanted from their Suzuki GSV-Rs to produce competitive qualifying laps. They both suffered with similar issues and will have a tough task ahead of them in tomorrow’s 20-lap race to get up amongst the front-runners at the start of race.

A strong cooling wind that blew around the 5,902m Silverstone circuit kept air temperatures down to 16ºC and track temperatures at a lowly 27ºC. World Championship leader Jorge Lorenzo set the fastest time of the day and will start tomorrow’s race from pole position.
The first motorcycle Grand Prix to be held at Silverstone since 1986 gets underway at 13.00hrs (12.00hrs GMT) on Sunday afternoon with both Capirossi and Bautista hoping for an increase in the temperatures and the sun to shine through to give them an opportunity of being competitive in front of the team’s home crowd.

Álvaro Bautista:
“We have had some problems with the cold conditions, especially this morning as it was almost impossible to ride the bike because both tyres were going away in the corners and I just couldn’t control the bike. This afternoon we changed the bike a lot and put some more weight on the rear tyre to try and get more warmth in it, it was better – but still not enough. I still feel that when I enter the corner I can’t go in too fast as I don’t have enough grip. We will try something else in warm-up tomorrow to get the best setting for the race and we hope that the sun comes out and the conditions will warm up because if it is cold it will be very difficult to ride.”

Paul Denning – Team Manager:
“We have improved a little bit during qualifying but ultimately the result is as bad as it looks on paper. Some changes to the chassis and swing-arm that Suzuki made over the winter were designed to improve our rear grip in cooler conditions, but we haven’t ridden all year in the same temperatures as we have experienced here at Silverstone. Unfortunately the step in rear grip is nowhere near what we need to help the guys to be competitive. The riders can control the bike on the corner exits, but a lack of rear grip into the corner is something that really spoils confidence and makes it difficult to get a good rhythm. The team is working hard to solve this situation, but we need something fundamental from the factory to improve the problem we are experiencing here.”