Lorenzo rules in Brno at the end of 1st day's practice

First day promise for Rizla Suzuki at Brno

Rizla Suzuki racers Loris Capirossi and Chris Vermeulen believe that there is a lot of potential in the new engine they are using at Brno this weekend and are eager to discover its full capability at the Czech circuit.

Capirossi (P9, 1'58.582, 22 laps) made many modifications to the chassis throughout the session to get the most from the new spec engine, and although he suffered with a vibration problem in the latter part of the hour, he is confident that he can improve dramatically on his time over the next two days.

Vermeulen (P13, 1'59.041, 23 laps) tested two completely different setting configurations and is clear in the direction the bike has to take tomorrow. He also made the most of the hour to get as much data about the different tyres that he has at his disposal this weekend to make sure he is fully prepared for Sunday's 22-lap race.

Today's practice at the 5,430m Brno circuit was held in dry, but overcast conditions with air temperatures getting up to 22ºC. Jorge Lorenzo on his factory Yamaha set the fastest time.

Rizla Suzuki MotoGP has one more practice session tomorrow morning, with qualifying in the afternoon to decide grid position for Sunday's race. Round 11 of the MotoGP World Championship will get going at 14.00hrs local time (12.00hrs GMT) on Sunday 16th August.

Loris Capirossi: "It has not been too bad today with the new engine we have received here from Suzuki, but we can certainly go a lot quicker. At the end of the session I made several changes and when I went back out I suffered with some vibration problems which we will need to look at tonight to see what has caused that. The latest engine seems good and I think it will give us a great opportunity from here until the end of the season to get some good results."

Chris Vermeulen: "I feel fit this weekend here at Brno and I felt really comfortable on the bike today after my injuries. The team did a good job again today and we tried a lot of things, including all the tyre compounds and two very different set-ups. I am not happy with the lap-time and the position, but the potential in the bike when we put the right pieces together looks very promising. We will make those adjustments first thing tomorrow and hopefully they'll make us go a lot quicker."

Paul Denning - Team Manager: "The potential of the GSV-R with the new spec engine and the updates that have been delivered to Brno is definitely a step in the right direction. The engine performance in particular is a reasonable improvement which we hope will help us on Sunday afternoon. We didn't come close to realising the full potential this afternoon, with Loris suffering from a severe mid-corner vibration and Chris having to use a combination of two different settings. The gap to the front two is big, but our potential to improve a lot and get in amongst the rest of the guys is fairly clear."

Canepa 15th, Fabrizio 17th at the end of day 1

Debut for Michel Fabrizio on the Pramac Racing's Ducati Desmosedici GP9 Sat in the first free practice of the Czech GP on the Brno circuit. The roman rider concluded with the seventeenth lap time of the day. Michel is getting to know his bike and its reaction on track, the diverse electronic system and Bridgestone tyres that were still new to him. The distance from the fastest riders is still too much, but is from tomorrow that Michel will have to concentrate on the single lap performance. His Teammate, Niccolò Canepa, is in fifteenth position. After having modified his bike in the final part of the free session, Niccolò made it to sensibly improve his best lap time of the day and is trustful for the rest of the weekend. Tomorrow two more hours of work for the Italian duo to try to climb the classification and conquer a good position on the starting grid.

Marco Rigamonti - Niccolò Canepa track engineer: "We didn't start in the best way possible, but in the last exit we have made some modification to the bike that helped us a lot. Niccolò is really trustful; he tried to ride without pushing too much to understand the bike's reaction. Tomorrow it will be a different story as he will have to push to the limit to sensibly improve. We are in the right direction and we believe we can achieve a good result this weekend."

Niccolò Canepa - Pramac Racing rider - 15th in 1'59.531: "I didn't push to the limit today. I had some difficulties to find the right rhythm, but at the end of the session after making some modification to the set up of the bike we understood there is some margin to improve. It seems like we have found the right direction to follow. Tomorrow I will surely push more to conquer a good lap time to start in a good position on the starting grid."

Michel Fabrizio - Pramac Racing rider - 17th in 2'00.423: "The Ducati Desmosedici GP9 Sat is surely a completely different bike compare to mine and one hour of practice it's not enough to understand our potential. The bike is much lighter, the engine much more powerful and also the traction control is really good. I still can't manage to brake as I would like to because I am used to Superbike reference marks, but from tomorrow I should improve. I found the biggest difficulties in the front part of the bike and it will be there where I will have to concentrate tomorrow morning to be able to feel the bike more mine."