Vermeulen delighted with fifth place

The Australian believes that the sequence of circuits coming up on the MotoGP calendar means that he can now build some momentum through the summer.

"I'm obviously happy because this is my best result of the year and we have shown that we have made a step with the bike after the Barcelona test - especially on the chassis side of things," said Vermeulen. "At this track - and the next couple that we are going to - it is not so important on the motor front, so the slight speed disadvantage that we have is not so bad and we can still be competitive.

"I got a good start to the race and got in with the front guys early on. I tried as hard as I could to stay with them, but didn't quite have the lap times to hang in there.

"I kept pushing all race and when Colin [Edwards] came past I tried to hang on to him, but he seemed to have a bit more rear grip than me."

Team-mate Loris Capirossi endured a frustrating day, losing several positions when Toni Elias tried to pass him at the final chicane to finally finish 10th.

"It was not a good result today and it began with a bad start by me, it made it very difficult all race because it is not very easy to overtake here.

"When I was pushed wide I was really disappointed because it meant I had to start all over again and chase the other guys to get past. I got past three riders on the last lap and I was just behind [Mika] Kallio on the last few corners and then he crashed, so I was sixth.

"I thought that would be not too bad, but on the last corner Elias tried to overtake me and put me out and that was it, it was is all over. I am upset because I really think if I had got a good start today I would have had a good race and we'd have been competitive, but it's finished now and we have to move on."