MotoGP news

Vermeulen delighted with first win

Chris Vermeulen has said he is ecstatic to have won his first MotoGP race. The Australian emerged from the chaos with the lead on lap 13 having started down in twelfth. Victory is especially sweet for Vermeulen considering his Rizla Suzuki team had no real expectations of such a result after a tough weekend for the 24-year-old.

"I'm absolutely over the moon! I am really happy for myself, my crew and everyone involved in the team. We'd had a difficult weekend coming into the race as not everything quite went to plan," Vermeulen said. "The conditions were slippery to start with and it was difficult to know how hard to push. Some guys came past me and then a lap or so later they crashed!"

Vermeulen kept out of trouble on the slippery Le Mans circuit as many other riders crashed out. The Aussie made the most of the race being wet weather and came into the pits early to change his bike. From then on Vermeulen managed to hold off the threat of Marco Melandri to take the chequered flag almost 13 seconds ahead of everyone else.

"It was difficult right from the start, it was spitting when we were sitting on the grid. You can see the water sitting on the track and you think how hard do you push when it's dry and you're on slicks. A lot of guys went past me and I started to pass some people back, but I pulled in the pits a lap earlier than most of the guys though it didn't seem to make much of a difference, they all came out of the pit lane when I was entering turn one so it was quite similar there but it just got wetter and wetter and I couldn't keep full throttle down the start finish straight, the bike was sliding and spinning and shaking. But we brought it home and it's a first win so hopefully the first of many," he added.

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