Catalunya Qualifying
HOPKINS BATTLES BRAVELY ON DURING CATALUNYA QUALIFYING
Kawasaki’s John Hopkins bravely qualified in 14th position
for tomorrow’s Grand Prix of Catalunya, after riding
with an injured back sustained in a turn two highside during
Friday’s practice.
Hopkins was determined to make up for the loss of valuable
track time to set up his Ninja ZX-RR around the Catalunya
circuit, after crashing heavily seven laps into yesterday
afternoon’s practice. The battered and bruised Anglo-American
rode through the pain barrier during today’s sessions,
busying himself with finding a good race pace, whilst suffering
with severe discomfort from the painful back injury.
The 25-year-old used this morning’s practice to identify
the best tyre combination for the race and although he was
hoping for a better grid position during qualifying, Hopkins
remains determined to put the recent setbacks he has encountered
behind him. The Kawasaki pilot will work together with his
crew overnight to make further improvements to the set-up
of his machine, and he will receive further treatment on his
injury in preparation for tomorrow’s 25-lap race.
Teammate Anthony West had a difficult qualifying session
around the 4.727km circuit, finishing in 17th position on
the grid. The 26-year-old Australian’s second qualifying
run came to a premature end when an electrical problem brought
his Ninja ZX-RR to a halt on the back part of the circuit.
West rushed back to the Kawasaki pit box, with the aim of
completing his final two qualifying runs aboard his spare
machine, but the session was brought to a close before he
was able to exit pit lane.
John Hopkins
#21 - 14th - 1'42.819
“It’s been difficult to ride today because I’ve
never had a back injury before and I’m in quite a lot
of pain. I’m finding it hard to breathe properly in
places, particularly on left-hand turns, and when riding at
this level with the strains put on the body at the speeds
we’re traveling, it’s tough going. However, we
have a good race pace despite the lost track time and we have
to stay focused. Overnight we’re going to look at some
areas to improve the set-up as we’re suffering with
some lack of grip, particularly at the apex of the turns,
and I think with a few adjustments we can improve our lap
time. I’d have liked to have qualified a bit higher
up the grid, but tomorrow I’m going to go out and give
it my all.”
Anthony West
#13 - 17th - 1'44.558
“We made some improvements to the front-end of the machine
yesterday, so practice today was all about finding a better
set-up in the rear. We made a few changes but unfortunately
it didn’t really bring the results we were hoping for,
and I’m still suffering with grip troubles. During my
second qualifying run we encountered a problem with the machine,
and we ran out of time to go back out on track, which was
also very frustrating. Tomorrow we have to make the best of
what we have and try to get a good result in the race.”
Fiorenzo Fanali
Hopkins' Crew Chief
“We lost a little bit of time yesterday due to John’s
crash in practice, so today we focused on the sections of
the circuit where he was suffering with a lack of rear grip.
We made some improvements to this before running through several
tyre combinations to finalise a choice for the race. We have
some areas where we know we can make improvements in set-up
for tomorrow, particularly to help John drive out of the turns.
We have a good race pace and although we didn’t qualify
where we would have liked on the grid, I am confident that
the package will be strong. John is carrying an injury and
he is obviously in a lot of discomfort but he always tries
incredibly hard and gives us his maximum, so we can only be
very thankful to him for that.”
1. Casey Stoner (AUS) Ducati Marlboro Team 1'41.186; 2. Dani
Pedrosa (SPA) Repsol Honda Team +0.083; 3. Nicky Hayden (USA)
Repsol Honda Team +0.251; 4. Randy De Puniet (FRA) LCR Honda
MotoGP +0.385; 5. Colin Edwards (USA) Tech 3 Yamaha +0.423;
6. James Toseland (GBR) Tech 3 Yamaha +0.634; 7. Andrea Dovizioso
(ITA) JIR Team Scot +0.867; 8. Chris Vermeulen (AUS) Rizla
Suzuki MotoGP +1.179; 9. Valentino Rossi (ITA) Fiat Yamaha
+1.241; 10. Alex De Angelis (RSM) San Carlo Honda Gresini
+1.394; 14. John Hopkins (USA) Kawasaki Racing Team +1.633;
17. Anthony West (AUS) Kawasaki Racing Team +3.372
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