Rizla Suzuki MotoGP on the pace in Catalunya
 Rizla
Suzuki MotoGP racers John Hopkins and Chris Vermeulen recorded
the third and seventh fastest times respectively in today’s
free practice sessions for the Catalan Grand Prix near Barcelona
this weekend.
Both riders were on the pace early on with Hopkins (1’43.389,
55 laps) heading the leaderboard for a large amount of the
morning session, before finishing in fourth place overall.
He was also the busiest rider of the day completing a total
of 55 laps of the 4.7km circuit. Hopkins was able to start
testing the best combination of Bridgestone race tyres right
from the start today, as the set-up of his GSV-R was dialled
in close to perfection for the Montmelo circuit right from
the beginning.
Vermeulen (1’43.713, 53 laps) produced a very solid
and impressive run during the afternoon session. He completed
nine laps, which was one of the consistently fastest runs
of the day, as his times improved and he moved up the classification.
He also used his time on track to the full to test the Bridgestone
race tyres in readiness for Sunday’s race.
Today’s practice was held in very warm and sunny conditions
with track surface temperatures reaching 54°C this afternoon.
Today’s best time was set by local hero Dani Pedrosa
on his works Honda.
Rizla Suzuki MotoGP has one more practice session tomorrow
morning, followed by an hour of qualifying in the afternoon.
Sunday’s 25-lap race gets underway at 14.00hrs local
time (12.00hrs GMT).
John Hopkins:
“It felt really good here today straight from the start.
This is a track I really enjoy and have a lot of fun riding
around here. As with every race so far this year the Suzuki
and the Bridgestone tyres are working very well and Stuart
has done a great job to set the bike up from the start, so
I am fortunate enough to go out and be able to work on getting
the right tyres for the race. We have made a couple of minor
setting changes, but not much so we have been able to spend
as much time on the track as possible. We’ve got a couple
of things to try tomorrow and I’m sure we can improve
on our times a bit and make sure we are in the best condition
possible to get a good result on Sunday.”
Chris Vermeulen:
“It is great to come back here, as this is a track
I enjoy and I had a good result here last year. All day we
have made progress with the bike, the tyres and the settings.
The bike feels really comfortable and I did quite a long run
this afternoon and set my best time with a front tyre that
had done more than race distance – and the grip still
felt good! We have a couple of areas to improve on, but the
guys are working hard on those and I’m sure come tomorrow
we’ll go even faster!”
Paul Denning – Team Manager:
“It has been a great day’s work today by the
riders and their crews. The track was very hot this afternoon
which possibly reduced the grip for everyone, but we managed
to get in a lot of fast laps – despite the conditions.
It’s nice to be at yet another race-track where the
GSV-R appears to be immediately competitive. It makes everyone’s
job a lot easier when you are looking for tenths of a second
rather than bigger gaps.
“Some of our competitors are really flying and we know
it’s not easy in this arena, but as ever we’ll
be in the fight and looking for the best results over the
weekend!”
Gran Premi Cinzano de Catalunya Free Practice Classification:
1. Dani Pedrosa (Honda) 1’43.099: 2. Valentino Rossi
(Yamaha) +0.214: 3. JOHN HOPKINS (RIZLA SUZUKI MOTOGP) +0.290:
4. Casey Stoner (Ducati) +0.444: 5. Toni Elias (Honda) +0.452:
7. CHRIS VERMEULEN (RIZLA SUZUKI MOTOGP) +0.614:
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