Big steps for Rizla Suzuki MotoGP on first day in the Netherlands
Rizla Suzuki MotoGP racers John Hopkins and Chris Vermeulen
both made significant advances in finding the optimum set-up
for Saturday’s Dutch TT, during today’s free practice
sessions.
Hopkins (P8, 1’38.436, 57 laps) took a big step forward
towards the end of this afternoon’s hour-long session
as he worked tirelessly with his crew to get the Suzuki GSV-R
dialled in to the Assen circuit. He continually improved his
times and set his best lap at the end of the practice.
Vermeulen (P15, 1’39.152, 50 laps) struggled with his
braking set-up for the most part of today and was hampered
in getting his bike prepared for Saturday’s 26-lap race
as he searched for solutions to the problem. He and his crew
finally made a breakthrough in the latter parts of this afternoon’s
session and now have a clear indication of the direction to
take tomorrow.
Today’s sessions were held in sunny and dry –
but very windy - conditions at the 4.5km Dutch track, and
championship leader Casey Stoner on his Bridgestone-shod factory
Ducati set the quickest time.
Rizla Suzuki MotoGP has one more free practice session tomorrow
morning, followed by qualifying in the afternoon. Saturday’s
race is round nine of the championship and gets underway at
14.00hrs local time (12.00hrs GMT).
John Hopkins:
“I can honestly say we struggled a bit with set-up
this morning - we were nowhere near where we wanted to be!
This is one of the first tracks this year that we have showed
up at and had to work really hard to get the bike how we want
it. The crew has worked really hard to get us up to near where
we have to be - we are still a bit behind, but we can make
that up! We’ve got some stuff to try in the morning
that I am sure will make things even better. We also worked
hard with Bridgestone and went through our tyre allocation
to find a compound that works well here. In the last run at
the end of this afternoon’s session we found some big
things that really moved us forward, it was almost like a
night and day difference! I now can’t wait to get back
out on track, it’s a shame we don’t have another
hour today as I’m sure we could smooth some more things
out and make a big step up!”
Chris Vermeulen:
“We’ve had a few problems on the bike today,
but the biggest has been the brakes. We’ve had a bit
of inconsistency and I’ve had to work the lever really
hard and that has given me a bit of arm pump. We have tried
a lot of things and improved considerably this afternoon.
I did get a bit of chassis vibration later on in the session,
but we know what that is caused by and we’ll put it
right tomorrow. We still have a lot to come from me and the
bike around here and I know Tom and the crew will be working
flat out to find the answers that we need!”
Paul Denning – Team Manager:
“It’s been a hard day for the whole team and
we are now in a better position than this morning! The gaps
in performance of all the riders here at Assen seem quite
small and we’ve yet to unlock the full potential of
the GSV-R. However, towards the end of this afternoon’s
session, John took a significant step forward and now feels
a lot more confident in the bike and his own ability to run
with the front group. We will need to find some more solutions
to help Chris - the position he is in is horrible, but the
gap in lap-time is not impossible to make up!
“Everyone at Rizla Suzuki MotoGP was sad to see Toni
Elias have an accident this morning and we would all like
to wish him a full recovery, as well as a speedy return to
the MotoGP paddock.”
A-Style TT Assen Free Practice Classification:
1. Casey Stoner (Ducati) 1’37.828: 2. Randy de Puniet
(Kawasaki) +0.212: 3. Nicky Hayden (Honda) +0.286: 4. Valentino
Rossi (Yamaha) +0.320: 5. Dani Pedrosa (Honda) +0.393: 8.
JOHN HOPKINS (RIZLA SUZUKI MOTOGP) +0.608: 15. CHRIS VERMEULEN
(RIZLA SUZUKI MOTOGP) +1.324:
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