Chris Vermeulen not ruling out World Superbike return

Chris Vermeulen might be keen to keep his MotoGP place after splitting from Suzuki’s factory squad, but the Aussie has refused to rule out a dramatic return to World Superbikes in 2010.

Vermeulen’s departure from Suzuki will be made official during this weekend’s Indianapolis GP, as was first reported by MCN last week, with Vermeulen losing his GSV-R ride to Spaniard Alvaro Bautista.

The 27-year-old, who remains Suzuki’s only winner in the four-stroke premier class era, is currently locked in talks with Tech 3 Yamaha and LCR Honda about a new MotoGP deal.

But he’s also pondering a WSB return for the first time since 2005. Vermeulen confirmed his management had spoken to Yamaha about a WSB move should an R1 seat become available and he would also seriously consider a move back to the Ten Kate Honda squad.

Vermeulen won the World Supersport crown for Ten Kate and finished runner-up in World Superbikes and he told MCN: “”I would consider them. I had some great years there winning the World Supersport championship and then developing the Fireblade and then was second in World Superbikes and won a lot of races.

I really get on with a lot of guys there. They haven’t had the success recently, since James (Toseland) really, so you have to look at why and what can be done.”

On the option of a Yamaha WSB switch, he added: “Yamaha has shown that it has been fast this year even with Ben learning a lot of circuits this year so the team and bike are obviously very competitive so I would like to explore that if I go that way.

“I’ve been speaking to Yamaha more on the front of MotoGP but I believe the World Superbike option has been spoken about by my management.”