Capirossi baffled by lack of pace

The Rizla Suzuki rider, who was very confident with his rhythm yesterday despite qualifying in 12th place, ended the race 38 seconds behind winner Jorge Lorenzo.

"We have to understand," Capirossi told Italia1 TV channel. "We are quite disappointed, not just me but all of us, because yesterday afternoon we went very quick, we were among the fastest, so we thought we could have a good race today."

The Italian lamented a lack of grip in his Bridgestone tyres, probably caused by the cooler conditions compared to yesterday.

"The conditions have changed, we didn't have grip from the start," he explained. "My race was very stable: the laptimes I did at the start are the same I did at the end. So it's a grip problem.

"We don't know whether it's a tyre problem, a frame problem, or an engine problem. We are trying to understand that. Tomorrow we'll stay here for a day of testing to see whether we can solve the problem.

"But we are calm. We know our objective is not to fight for eighth or ninth place, it's to fight at the front. I'm certain we can get there soon."

Team manager Paul Denning echoed his rider's sentiments, after Capirossi's teammate Chris Vermeulen did not do much better than him by finishing just one place better in eighth.

"It has been a disappointing Grand Prix and we'd hoped for a lot better," said Denning. "We got both bikes into the top ten but realistically we needed a bit of luck to do that, it's very clear that we still have a lot of work to do.

"On the same bike and the same tyres yesterday, Loris could easily make very competitive lap-times, but today we really struggled to stay in touch. Our grip potential seemed to change a lot today, whereas our competitors didn't seem to be as badly affected.

"We are here for a full day's testing tomorrow and let's hope we can find a bit more pace, put this race behind us and head to Shanghai where we know the Bridgestone tyres and the Suzuki GSV-R have worked well in the past."

The Chinese Grand Prix will be held in three week's time.