Chris Vermeulen was the winner of an unpredictable French Grand Prix at Le Mans on Sunday, when heavy rainfall ironically helped end a six-year drought for Suzuki in MotoGP.
The Australian had taken a debut podium with second place on home soil in the first ever bike-swap MotoGP race last season - and went one better in his first wet race with the 800cc GSV-R to take his maiden victory in the premier class.
Vermeulen had qualified just 12th in the dry, dropped to 15th in the early stages of the race, and was only eighth by the time he entered the pit lane at the end of lap nine. However, after swapping to his wet-weather machine, the former World Supersport champion and WSBK race winner stormed from seventh to first in one lap!
"I think Chris Vermeulen is a bit of a magician in the rain!" admitted Valentino Rossi.
Chris then continued to 'walk on water' for the remaining 17 circulations, rebuffing a challenge from Marco Melandri to hand Suzuki its first victory of the four-stroke era by 12 seconds. World championship leader Casey Stoner finished third to give Bridgestone a clean sweep on the podium.
"I'm absolutely over the moon! I am really happy for myself, my crew and everyone involved in the team," beamed Vermeulen, competing in only his second full season of MotoGP. "We'd had a difficult weekend coming into the race as not everything quite went to plan - but we were getting quicker and quicker and I'm sure if it had been dry today we would have improved more.
"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! It started to rain quite heavy and I decided to come in and change my bike. I came back out and just stuck my head down and tried to get the tyres up to heat up as quick as possible.
"The bike felt really good in the rain, but as it got heavier it made it hard to hold the bike in top gear down the straight - there was so much water it was just spinning the rear!" he grinned. "Tom O'Kane - my crew chief - and the rest of the guys gave me a really good wet bike today as we hadn't done much wet testing with the new 800. The tyre choice was spot-on and the bike was certainly good enough to win on!"
"Well done to Chris, to the whole team and to Suzuki for producing a motorcycle that is capable of producing podiums in both wet and dry conditions," added Paul Denning after his first GP victory as a team manager. "It may have looked a bit 'on the edge' on television in some of the corners, but Chris assures us that he had it all under control out there. I will take his word for that as it was him out there and not me! He showed again his true level of bike control and talent. This should give him the confidence to push towards the front in all conditions over the busy weeks ahead."
Team-mate John Hopkins had been the lead Suzuki all weekend in the dry, and rode brilliantly during the first part of the race, but was forced to settle for seventh after running off track in the wet conditions.
"Firstly I want to say well done to Chris and well done to Suzuki for standing on top of the podium," said Hopkins, third in China. "It is certainly an achievement to stand on the podium two races in a row; hopefully we can carry that streak on together.
"As for the race we chose one of the hardest slick rear tyres that we had, so I had to take it easy to get it up to temperature. Once it was there and I had confidence in it I was able to go from 12th to first in a short space of time. Everything was going fine until it started raining harder. I think we made the right decision when to come in to change the bike. I tried to get used to riding in the wet and it all seemed to be going alright, but we had some minor adjustment problems that hindered us a bit.
"At the end of the day I kept it on two wheels and finished the race with some good points. We will take the positives from this weekend and although I am disappointed to finish where I did after all the hard work we put in in the dry, it's now time to move onto a lot of tracks that I enjoy and continue this podium streak for Rizla Suzuki!" he concluded.
"Seventh was not so bad for John, but I really feel for him given that his performance level was that of a podium finisher all weekend," confessed Denning. "He had some small issues with the wet bike, but he had shown his determination to get to the front and win a GP by coming from 12th to first in a matter of laps before the rain really started.
"We still have a lot to do in the test [on Monday] and we hope it dries up enough to get through that programme. The whole team is certainly on a high at the moment and is heading towards Mugello looking for more of the same," he added.
