Kawasaki Racing Team rider Chris Vermeulen was once more held back by both his 18th place qualifying position and pain and weakness in his injured knee at the fifth round of the World Superbike Championship at Monza, Italy, yesterday.
The Aussie rider fought every lap as hard as he could and scored 18th and 13th place finishes in the two 18-lap races. His grit and determination place him 19th in the overall rankings.
‰ÛÏIn each race I got a very good start, but in the first race we had tried to make a few small set-up changes on the bike, but it was in the wrong direction," Vermeulen explained.
"Physically it made the bike very hard to handle, to change direction, so I was very tired after race one. My lap times were a lot better in race two and the bike was good, it was just my leg that is still the main thing stopping me from racing to my full potential. But I was happy with the progress in race two and racing with someone like Max Neukirchner, so it wasn‰Ûªt too bad," Vermeulen concluded.
Main Photo: Chris Vermeulen
