Hopkins near the top in all weathers!
 Rizla
Suzuki MotoGP’s John Hopkins recorded the second fastest
time during today’s wet free practice and third in the
dry, during preparations for this weekend’s Italian
Grand Prix.
This morning’s session was held in dry, but overcast
conditions at the 5.2km Mugello circuit. Hopkins (1’51.022,
27 laps) was consistently competitive on his 800cc GSV-R and
clocked the third quickest time, only 0.2 seconds behind the
fastest rider Dani Pedrosa on a Honda. Chris Vermeulen (1’52.125)
was just over a second behind Hopkins this morning, as the
Le Mans race victor clocked the 13th quickest time during
his 23 laps.
The two Rizla Suzuki MotoGP racers had to endure totally
different circumstances in the afternoon as the skies opened
and torrential rain flooded the Tuscan circuit. The track
had a river running through it and the session was delayed
by 10 minutes to allow some of the standing water to clear.
Hopkins and Vermeulen both got into a good rhythm in the
tricky conditions and topped the leaderboard during the session.
In the end Hopkins just got the better of his team-mate as
the two Rizla Suzuki riders finished in second and third places
respectively. Casey Stoner on a Ducati was quickest, as the
Bridgestone rain tyres again showed their performance potential
by filling the top three places.
Today’s wet session gave the team some valuable time
to test wet settings for the new 800cc Suzuki GSV-R and were
very pleased with the direction and improvements that were
made.
Rizla Suzuki MotoGP has one more free practice session tomorrow
morning before an hour of qualifying in the afternoon to decide
starting positions for Sunday’s race. Round six of the
MotoGP World Championship will be raced over 23 laps and gets
underway at 14.00hrs local time (12.00hrs GMT).
John Hopkins:
“We got another wet one today! It was good to have
a completely wet session where we could work in detail on
the bikes, and we managed to get a really good rain set-up
towards the end. The standing water started to subside a bit,
I got behind Chris and was able to get into a good rhythm
- it worked out pretty well. I tried both bikes in the rain
with different settings and we got a really good feeling from
them. I was also pleased with the direction that we went this
morning. We were comfortable and the Bridgestone tyre that
I used showed good consistency and grip. So whatever the weather
is over the rest of the weekend – wet or dry –
we’re going to be ready and I’ve got a really
good feeling about Mugello!”
Chris Vermeulen:
“We got a bit of both today with the wet and dry. I
thought I would struggle a bit here, but I went quite quickly
in this morning’s dry session. It took me a few laps
to get familiar with the track, but we learnt a lot about
the bike and we have some ideas to try if it is dry tomorrow.
This afternoon it was very wet, which was good because although
the bike worked well in Le Mans it wasn’t perfect and
we had a few things we needed to try. We tested a couple of
rain parts and we certainly made some progress. I am pretty
confident about the rest of the weekend, but we’ll have
to wait and see what the weather does.”
Paul Denning – Team Manager:
“All in all it’s been a constructive first day
bearing in mind the changeable weather. John did a great job
this morning and set his fastest lap on tyres that were well
past race distance. Just as importantly, he took a big step
forward with his wet weather settings and confidence this
afternoon.
“Chris, despite some setting issues that need to be
improved, was as quick as we would expect out there this afternoon
- he wasn’t too far away this morning either! In general,
although nobody likes racing in the conditions like they were
this afternoon, we are taking a positive attitude as we have
two riders and a bike that seem capable of dealing with anything
so we are looking forward to the rest of the weekend.”
Gran Premio D’Italia Alice Free Practice One
Classification:
1. Dani Pedrosa (Honda) 1’50.743: 2. Valentino Rossi
(Yamaha) +0.158: 3. JOHN HOPKINS (RIZLA SUZUKI MOTOGP) +0.279:
4. Casey Stoner (Ducati) +0.613: 5. Carlos Checa (Honda) +0.671:
13. CHRIS VERMEULEN (RIZLA SUZUKI MOTOGP) +1.382:
Free Practice Two Classification:
1. Stoner 2’07.107: 2. JOHN HOPKINS (RIZLA SUZUKI MOTOGP)
+0.018: 3. CHRIS VERMEULEN (RIZLA SUZUKI MOTOGP) +0.102: 4.
Rossi +1.346: 5. Kenny Roberts Jr (KR212V) +1.695:
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