Mixed fortunes for Suzuki duo

Having had at least one bike in the top five for most of practice, team boss Paul Denning admitted that he had hoped for better from qualifying.

"It's been a very competitive weekend so far for the team and today's qualifying results are disappointing in that they don't reflect our true potential," Denning said.

"We would have liked to have seen both bikes on the first two rows of the grid. Chris got very close to doing that with a great effort on his final qualifying tyre."

Vermeulen said the Suzuki had the potential to do better had he managed a tidier lap.

"This afternoon on qualifiers the tyre worked pretty well in the new chassis, but I never quite managed to do that perfect lap and unfortunately we didn't quite make it to the second row of the grid," he said.

"Having said that, seventh is one of my better dry qualifying positions of the season so we are definitely making improvements. My race pace is strong for tomorrow and I think with a good start we can fight for the podium."

Capirossi had been on Vermeulen's pace in practice, but a set-up miscue and traffic cost him time in qualifying.

"With Loris we tried a different direction this afternoon - which we thought would be better - but unfortunately it didn't work and it took a while for him to come back to the high rhythm that he showed yesterday afternoon and this morning," Denning said.

"That, combined with the fact that he had a lot of traffic on his final lap, resulted in a far from ideal qualifying result. He says he can do much better in the race, and he has the fire in his eyes, so we are expecting a big show from Loris tomorrow."

The Italian said he was already planning a charge on race day.

"I am quite confident for tomorrow, it won't be easy starting from 11th, but I'll be aggressive early on and my rhythm with race tyres is really good so we'll have to see what happens," said Capirossi.