Second row start for Hopkins in Catalunya
 John
Hopkins will start tomorrow’s Catalan Grand Prix from
the second row of the grid, as he powered his Rizla Suzuki
GSV-R to fifth place during this afternoon’s qualifying
session at Montmelo.
Hopkins (1’42.233, 26 laps) produced a great final
lap on his Bridgestone qualifying tyres to push him higher
up the leaderboard, after a series of issues had caused him
to miss a small part of the session, and then to lose out
on a qualifying lap. Suzuki’s Anglo-American star suffered
a mechanical problem with his first bike, and was then forced
to abort his first qualifying lap when he was blocked by a
slower rider on the racing line.
Hopkins was unable to ride his number one bike back to the
team’s garage, but as soon as he got back he was straight
out on his second machine making sure that he didn’t
lose too much valuable practice time. He was just over 0.2
seconds off a front row position and only 0.393 seconds behind
pole-setter Valentino Rossi in the final classification.
Chris Vermeulen (1’42.967, 26 laps) looked fast and
consistent on race tyres throughout the practice today and
the set-up of the bike for the 4.7km circuit was working well.
He never quite managed to re-produce his race pace on qualifying
tyres and will start from the middle of the fourth row tomorrow
after posting the 11th quickest time.
Today’s air temperatures rose to 33°C and the track
surface was 52°C. With more of the same forecast for tomorrow’s
25-lap race, it will be as much a battle of stamina and fitness
for the riders, as it will be a test of the machines’
durability, when the race gets underway at 14.00hrs local
time (12.00hrs GMT).
John Hopkins:
“We certainly ran into a few issues during the qualifying
session! We had a little mechanical problem with my first
bike and I wasn’t able to get it back to the garage,
so I had to come back and get on my spare bike. It just goes
to show how good the Suzuki is working this year, because
the spare bike is almost identical to what we have as the
A-bike. We then went back out and I got into a quick rhythm
straight away. On my first run on the qualifiers I had a bit
of a problem with another rider going too slowly on the racing
line, so I came in before finishing that lap. On the last
qualifying tyre I managed to get where I wanted to be –
on one of the front two rows. It’s going to be a long,
hot race tomorrow, but the bike and the Bridgestone tyres
are working well and we’re 100% ready to go racing!”
Chris Vermeulen:
“It’s not ideal starting from the fourth row
tomorrow, and that is not where I want to be! I was comfortable
early on with the race tyres and we did a good run - the durability
and consistency was definitely there. When we put the qualifier
in we didn’t quite get the grip from the front of the
bike that we were after. We will be trying something with
the front in tomorrow’s warm-up to help out a bit in
that area. I know I can run with the leading group and I will
try to get up there from the start and who knows what will
happen then!”
Paul Denning – Team Manager:
“It’s been another good day’s work, but
a frustrating qualifying session for us this afternoon. John’s
problem with his number one bike in the middle of the session
meant that he had to jump onto the spare bike – which
he had not tested all weekend. He did a fantastic job considering
he only got in one qualifying run after being badly baulked
by an experienced rider - who really should know better! His
second row start is a good achievement, and if we can qualify
well in a session like that then the potential for the future
is extremely exciting.
“Chris had a great session on race tyres and looked
as quick as anyone else out there today, but it just didn’t
work out for him on the qualifiers. It seems like there was
a combination of factors that made life difficult to push
his lap-times further. But as we have already seen this year
his race-craft is fantastic and we are expecting a much better
finish from Chris than the qualifying position today.”
Gran Premio Cinzano de Catalunya Qualifying Classification:
1. Valentino Rossi (Yamaha) 1’41.840: 2. Randy De Puniet
(Kawasaki) +0.061: 3. Dani Pedrosa (Honda) +0.162: 4. Casey
Stoner (Ducati) +0.277: 5. JOHN HOPKINS (RIZLA SUZUKI MOTOGP)
+0.393: 11. CHRIS VERMEULEN (RIZLA SUZUKI MOTOGP) +1.127:
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