Mixed fortunes for Suzuki riders on day 1

Vermeulen, who won his first grand prix at Le Mans in wet conditions last year, always goes well in the rain, but Capirossi went the wrong way on setup and never recovered.

"The circuit have done a good job here and they have built a great track, although some of the new surface is different to the old one and it holds water in very different ways, so in the wet it was difficult to get the bike working with any rhythm," said Vermeulen.

"We did try a lot of things and the whole team did a good job in the awful conditions.

"Bridgestone has brought some really good wet tyres here and they worked very well. Hopefully we can improve further tomorrow on what we have done today!"

Capirossi was understandably less buoyant about his day's work: "I think this was a bit of a negative day for me today, not just my position but the fact that I never found a good setting.

"We tried to change things throughout the day, but the biggest problem was how bad the conditions were and we just didn't seem to be able to make any improvements," he added.

"It is easy to say this about the track, but it is the same for everybody and I just struggled out there today.

"Today has been the worst day of the season, but I am not going to let that bother me because we have to improve tomorrow and I know that we will!"