PROMISING START FOR KAWASAKI IN CHINA
The Grand Prix of China began today with the first two practice
sessions of the weekend. In perfect warm, dry conditions,
the premier class field headed out onto the 5.281km circuit
at Shanghai with Kawasaki riders, John Hopkins and Anthony
West, aboard their Bridgestone-shod Ninja ZX-RRs.
The 24-year-old Hopkins who, on starting Sunday's race, will
become the youngest ever rider to achieve the landmark of
partaking in 100 MotoGP rounds, came fifth fastest in both
sessions, improving his times in the afternoon with a best
lap of 2'00.591. Just over half a second off the leader, the
Anglo-American is looking strong at the track, which boasts
a fast, sweeping layout, well suited to the Kawasaki machine.
Meanwhile, West put his best lap in during the morning practice,
with a time of 2'01.984 and a staggering top speed of 320.0kmh.
The 27-year-old Australian was one of a number of riders,
including pack-leader Valentino Rossi, whose early times were
their strongest of the day and, as the Kawasaki squad experimented
with settings on the ZX-RR, West's position on combined times
was 15th in the group.
Practice continues tomorrow morning, followed by the qualifying
session in the afternoon, at 13.55 hours, local time, prior
to Sunday's 22-lap race.
John Hopkins
#21: 5th - 28 Laps - 2'00.591
"Today we worked on setting up the machine to suit my
preferences around this circuit. I really like this track
and I've always gone quite well here. In the afternoon session
we tried a few different Bridgestone tyre combinations to
find a choice that will last the distance on Sunday. We also
evaluated various parts and we've finished practice very positively.
I'm feeling confident and tomorrow we need to qualify well
to put us in the best possible stead for the race."
Anthony West
#13: 15th - 39 Laps - 2'01.984
"Although the times are not brilliant, we are making
some progress and our fastest laps have been in the closing
stages of each session. Hopefully, this means there is more
to come, and we can continue going faster. Our biggest problem
is with the power delivery and corner exit, where I feel we
are losing a lot of time due to a lack of traction. Tonight
we will review the data and try to find a solution to continue
moving forwards."
Naoya Kaneko
Kawasaki Technical Manager
"In practice today we've been working on our Shanghai
race set-up. We haven't needed to make many changes for John
from the last round at Estoril, so we've just been optimising
the base setting we already have. We are not that far from
the front but we need to improve the machine performance a
little to be with the leaders. Anthony is slowly regaining
his confidence and although his lap times are not quite where
he needs to be, he is moving forwards. We will look at the
data overnight and see which areas he needs to improve on
tomorrow."
1. Valentino Rossi (46) Fiat Yamaha 1'59.906; 2. Casey Stoner
(AUS) Ducati Marlboro Team +0.257; 3. Dani Pedrosa (SPA) Repsol
Honda Team +0.455; 4. Shinya Nakano (JPN) Honda Gresini +0.647;
5. John Hopkins (USA) Kawasaki Racing Team +0.685; 6. Nicky
Hayden (USA) Repsol Honda Team +0.701; 7. Alex De Angelis
(RSM) Honda Gresini +1.025; 8. Loris Capirossi (ITA) Rizla
Suzuki MotoGP +1.058; 9. Andrea Dovizioso (ITA) JIR Team Scott
+1.068; 10. Colin Edwards (USA) Yamaha Tech 3 +1.158; 15.
Anthony West (AUS) Kawasaki Racing Team +2.078
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