HOPKINS RIDES THROUGH THE PAIN BARRIER AT JEREZ
After a successful team launch yesterday evening, the Kawasaki
Racing Team got down to work proper today, during the first
of three days of testing at the Jerez circuit in southern
Spain.
For John Hopkins today marked his first outing on Kawasaki’s
Ninja ZX-RR since the turn one highside that prematurely ended
his pre-season test at Phillip Island less than three weeks
ago. The crash left the Anglo-American with a badly torn abductor
muscle in his groin, which continued to cause Hopkins discomfort
on the bike during today’s test.
Hopkins managed to work his way through a short test programme
to evaluate new components on his Ninja ZX-RR, but called
it a day after riding through the pain barrier to complete
29 laps of the 4.423km Jerez circuit.
The 24-year-old Kawasaki rider will continue testing tomorrow,
but with his focus now on regaining full fitness in time for
the opening race in Qatar, will stop should the injury continue
to cause him problems on the bike.
With his teammate still suffering with the effects of his
injury, Anthony West shouldered the tyre testing duties for
the Kawasaki Racing Team today. The 26-year-old Australian
completed a total of 84 laps, as he worked to evaluate a range
of new tyres brought to the test by Kawasaki’s tyre
partner, Bridgestone.
West will focus tomorrow on refining the set-up of his Ninja
ZX-RR further, working with his crew to improve both the braking
stability and agility of his machine.
Kawasaki’s Technical Manager, Naoya Kaneko, is positive
that, despite Hopkins’s injury, the Kawasaki Racing
team has made big steps forward with the machine set-up today
but the aim remains to strengthen the overall package prior
to the season opener.
Anthony West
15th - 84 Laps - 1:41.821
"This morning we managed to make some small improvements
to the set-up of the bike here at Jerez, before switching
our attention to tyre testing for Bridgestone. We tested a
number of new tyre combinations, with positive results, and
I’m sure the data we collected will prove useful to
Bridgestone’s development process. Tomorrow we will
return to fine-tuning the bike for the characteristics of
the Jerez circuit, which is very different in character to
Sepang and Phillip Island. With John being injured we have
many settings to try and we want to make the best use of the
track time so we can be in contention right from the first
race."
John Hpkins
16th - 29 Laps - 1:41.901
"The injury has caused me a few more problems than I
was expecting today and it’s still quite painful. My
main aim has to be to regain full fitness for the first race,
so although I will definitely continue testing tomorrow, it
may be that we call it a day early if the injury continues
to be a problem. It’s definitely been a case of riding
through the pain barrier today, but I don’t want to
jeopardise the recovery process by pushing too hard too soon.
On a more positive note we did manage to test some parts today,
we’ll just have to see how the injury feels before we
make a decision on what to do next."
Naoya Kaneko
Kawasaki Technical Manager
"Today Anthony completed a tyre evaluation and we collected
some good development data for Bridgestone. We have done a
lot of work with the balance of the machine, mainly working
with the suspension and, although we still have some work
to do to make machine more stable, we are making good progress.
We are not 100% where we’d like to be yet, but we also
have some new components to test for improving engine performance
of the machine. Our target at the moment is to have better
turning and to have a better overall package for the first
race. With John’s injury it’s difficult to see
where we’re at, but sometimes we face these problems
in racing; for us it’s important that he is fit for
the first race and I am not worried about machine set-up so
much for him."
1. Nicky Hayden (USA) Repsol Honda Team 1'39.200; 2. Randy
De Puniet (FRA) Honda LCR +1.023; 3. Valentino Rossi (46)
Fiat Yamaha +1.441; 4. Andrea Dovizioso (ITA) JIR Team Scott
+1.567; 5. James Toseland (GBR) Yamaha Tech 3 +1.568; 6. Casey
Stoner (AUS) Ducati Marlboro Team +1.622; 7. Colin Edwards
(USA) Yamaha Tech 3 +1.745; 8. Jorge Lorenzo (SPA) Fiat Yamaha
+1.858; 9. Alex De Angelis (RSM) Honda Gresini +1.970; 10.
Dani Pedrosa (SPA) Repsol Honda Team +2.152; 11. Shinya Nakano
(JPN) Honda Gresini +2.235; 15. Anthony West (AUS) Kawasaki
Racing Team +2.621; 16. John Hopkins (USA) Kawasaki Racing
Team +2.701
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