TRICKY CONDITIONS HAMPER KAWASAKI IN SHANGHAI
Kawasaki's John Hopkins and Anthony West were left frustrated
today, after rear traction problems left them unable to fulfil
their true potential in this afternoon's 22-lap Chinese Grand
Prix. Hopkins finished a difficult race in 14th position,
with West crossing the line a further 20 seconds back in 17th
place.
After qualifying on the fifth row of the grid yesterday,
Hopkins was quick to make up places from the start of today's
race. The Anglo-American put himself in touch with the leaders,
including eventual race winner Valentino Rossi, by riding
around the outside of the field at turn one. Unfortunately,
Hopkins had it all to do again after a coming together with
Alex de Angelis forced him to run on at the end of the main
straight, and left him nursing a painful puncture wound after
catching his knee on his own foot peg.
Rear traction problems hampered the 24-year-old Kawasaki
pilot's attempts to work his way back through the field, but
his persistence and determination were rewarded with two valuable
championship points, as he fought his way up to 14th place
by race end.
The main straight also caused problems for West, who was
passed by his teammate after running off the track early on
in the race. Like Hopkins, the 27-year-old Australian was
frustrated by a lack of rear grip from the start of the race,
but he also identified a lack of front-end grip under braking
as being a major factor in his disappointing result.
With both riders having declared themselves satisfied with
the performance of their Ninja ZX-RR machines in race trim
and on race tyres yesterday, the reason for such an unexpected
deterioration in rear traction was not immediately apparent.
Kawasaki's engineers will now look to the data to identify
the problem ahead of the next race, which takes place at Le
Mans in just two weeks time.
John Hopkins
#21 - 14th
"We went out in the wet warm-up session this morning
with high hopes of a good result in the rain or dry today.
By the time we got to the race, the circuit had started to
dry out and we had to make a decision on tyre choice, which
maybe wasn't the best. I struggled right from the start with
rear traction problems, and I pushed hard to make my way through
the field. I made a few mistakes and ran off the track in
places, it was a really tough race. I'm very disappointed
as it's not the result I wanted for my hundredth Grand Prix,
but we must stay focussed and try to make amends at the next
round."
Anthony West
#13 - 17th
"I was looking for a better result than this today. The
conditions were not ideal as the track was quite slippery
after being wet this morning and it gradually dried out during
the race. I followed John for a few laps and I think we were
both experiencing similar problems with a lack of rear grip.
I ran off the track in places because I just couldn't make
the bike stick. I'm frustrated, as we need to make headway
with these issues we've been having, but I'm determined for
us to make a step forwards very soon."
Michael Bartholemy
Kawasaki Competition Manager
"I am disappointed with the result today as it isn't
where I predicted us to be. We are not here to finish in the
positions we achieved in the race. Shanghai is a circuit that
we've performed quite well at in the past and I felt that
we would gain better results here than in the opening rounds
of the season. We suffered with rear traction problems in
the race and both riders struggled to find grip. Now we have
to look forward to Le Mans and everybody must work hard to
improve our results there."
1. Valentino Rossi (46) Fiat Yamaha 44'08.061; 2. Dani Pedrosa
(SPA) Repsol Honda Team +3.890; 3. Casey Stoner (AUS) Ducati
Marlboro Team +15.928; 4. Jorge Lorenzo (SPA) Fiat Yamaha
+22.494; 5. Marco Melandri (ITA) Ducati Marlboro Team +26.957;
6. Nicky Hayden (USA) Repsol Honda Team +28.369; 7. Colin
Edwards (USA) Yamaha Tech 3 +29.780; 8. Toni Elias (ITA) Alice
d'Antin Ducati +30.225; 9. Loris Capirossi (ITA) Rizla Suzuki
MotoGP +31.440; 10. Shinya Nakano (JPN) Honda Gresini +35.969;
14. John Hopkins (USA) Kawasaki Racing Team +45.855; 17. Anthony
West (AUS) Kawasaki Racing Team +1'05.593
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