Rizla Suzuki right on the pace in Malaysia
Rizla Suzuki MotoGP racer John Hopkins completed 2007’s
first test at Sepang in Malaysia today with a simulated race
distance, bettering his 990cc race time from 2006 by an incredible
seven seconds.
 The
Anglo-American star conducted the long distance test during
the hottest part of the day, with track surface temperatures
rising to over 60°C. His overall time for the twenty flying
laps was 41 minutes and one second, in comparison to his 2006
time of 41’08. The new Suzuki GSV-R800 performed with
consistency over the race simulation and, allied to the latest
generation of Bridgestone race tyres, the Rizla Suzuki MotoGP
package is looking increasingly competitive for the forthcoming
season.
Hopkins and team-mate Chris Vermeulen also tested some of
the latest Bridgestone qualifying tyres for the first time
on an 800cc Suzuki and were able to give very consistent data
to the engineers. Hopkins recorded a quickest time of 2’01.026
with Vermeulen clocking a fastest time of 2’01.691 on
their qualifiers to give them second and fifth place respectively
on the timesheets.
Vermeulen also completed a race simulation and was very pleased
with the results, even though he was hampered by the weather
half way through as rain started to lightly fall. He completed
43 laps today and recorded his best ever lap around Sepang.
Hopkins completed 38 laps and the data that he and Vermeulen
collected will prove valuable to themselves, the team and
Suzuki’s hard-working engineers as they move forward
onto the next test.
Rizla Suzuki MotoGP now travels to Phillip Island in Australia
for the second test of 2007, starting on Tuesday 30th January.
The first race of the MotoGP season is in Qatar on Saturday
10th March.
John Hopkins:
“I’m really happy with the way the week has gone.
We’ve got a new bike here so at first we needed to get
it set-up, which we did on the first day to the way I liked
it and from then it’s only been simple little changes.
We have tested a lot of tyres for Bridgestone and everything
has been going really well. Today I tried some qualifiers
as I’d never used them on the 800 before and it was
good to see how they worked. Then I did a race distance and
I’m really excited about how that went! We did it at
the hottest part of the day and we managed to run a very competitive
time. Everything at the moment feels good and overall I’m
thoroughly happy with it. This is a big year for me and I’ve
got a couple of new personal sponsors with Monster Energy
drinks and Amp’d Mobile coming on board, so I really
want to do well for them as well as for Suzuki, Rizla and
all the people who have supported us!”
Chris Vermeulen:
“It has been a good test on the whole. We got three
good days of dry weather – which is unusual here in
Malaysia – and we’ve got through lots of work.
We tested front, rear and qualifying tyres from Bridgestone,
as well as a lot of Suzuki test items. John and I both had
the 2007 bike which was good to use and found some good things
with it. I went quicker and quicker and I did my fastest ever
lap around the circuit during this test. This afternoon we
did a race distance which was quicker than I did in the race
last year – even with some rain falling over on the
back of the circuit. I felt really comfortable out there and
I am now looking to getting to Phillip Island and carrying
on from here!”
Paul Denning – Team Manager:
“The test couldn’t have gone any better, apart
from maybe Mr Rossi going 0.09 slower on his qualifier so
that John would have been fastest on all three days! The new
2007 GSV-R has further improved from the prototype that we
used last year. Both riders got through a mountain of work
and the reliability and consistency of the new bike has been
superb. Obviously it’s nice to be on the top of the
timesheets, but it is more pleasing to see how competitive
we were on the long runs during the final day. We have also
provided the Bridgestone guys with lots of good data to assist
them with their development programme.
It’s great to start the year with a base package that
works well and is giving the riders good confidence, but we
know that the competition is already at a good level and will
no doubt improve rapidly over the forthcoming tests. We still
have areas of the bike that could improve and the factory
will be focusing on them quite aggressively over the next
few weeks. We won’t get too carried away over these
results from Sepang because this is a good track for Bridgestone
and, historically, a relatively good one for the GSV-R. We
are looking forward to getting to Australia and hoping that
we can be close to the other bikes around there as we struggled
a bit last year. If we can come away from Phillip Island with
a positive test result then everyone at Rizla Suzuki MotoGP
will be very much looking forward to the first Grand Prix
of the season!”
Sepang MotoGP Overall Test Times:
1. Valentino Rossi (Yamaha) 2’00.936: 2. JOHN HOPKINS
(RIZLA SUZUKI MOTOGP) 2’01.026: 3. Loris Capirossi (Ducati)
2’01.274: 4. Dani Pedrosa (Honda) 2’01.664: 5.
CHRIS VERMEULEN (RIZLA SUZUKI MOTOGP) 2’01.691:
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