Solid day’s work for Rizla Suzuki MotoGP in Spain
Rizla Suzuki MotoGP racers John Hopkins and Chris Vermeulen
recorded the seventh and eighth fastest times respectively
during today’s free practice sessions for the Jerez
Grand Prix on Sunday.
 Hopkins
(1’41.245, 49 laps) is still suffering from his hand
injury, but put together some fast laps on his Suzuki GSV-R
as he worked with his team to find the best combination of
Bridgestone race tyres to match the new 800cc bike’s
performance around the 4.4km track. Hopkins missed the IRTA
test at Jerez earlier in the year – due to the injuries
he sustained at Qatar – and had to take a gamble on
the correct tyres to use because he had no data as to how
the new bike would perform on this circuit.
Vermeulen is also not at full fitness this weekend, as Suzuki’s
Australian star is suffering from a strong head cold. This
didn’t deter the 24-year-old as he went about his work
with the usual professional manner and saw his lap times reduce
consistently throughout the day. His time of 1’41.305
from his 49 laps was the fastest time he had ever been round
Jerez on race tyres.
Team Test Rider Kousuke Akiyoshi produced the biggest improvement
of any rider at the Spanish track today. He managed to take
over one-and-a-half seconds off his lap-times from the morning
to the afternoon session. His best time of 1’42.549
gave him 20th place overall, on this his first-ever European
Grand Prix practice day.
Today’s practice was held in dry sunny conditions with
the air temperatures reaching 20°C. The fastest time was
set by local Spanish favourite Carlos Checa on a Honda.
Rizla Suzuki MotoGP has one more practice session tomorrow
morning before qualifying gets underway in the afternoon.
Sunday’s race will be over 27 laps and the light will
turn to go at 14.00hrs local time (13.00hrs GMT).
John Hopkins:
“We’re off to a pretty good start for the weekend.
We are working through the tyres with Bridgestone as I had
to throw the dice and take a bit of a gamble with which tyres
to choose for the new tyre rule. I never made it here for
the IRTA test so I didn’t have a lot of information.
It seems like what we’ve got is pretty good, but we
are still going to work on some settings to get the best grip
we can. I still have a bit of pain and this is a more physical
track than Qatar so I am really feeling it. But I’ll
ride around that and I am expecting to have a pretty good
weekend. Everything has got off to a good start and if we
get that bit more grip and get a good qualifying position
tomorrow anything can happen come Sunday!”
Chris Vermeulen:
“The weather has changed a bit for this weekend and
it was quite cold this morning. That made it a bit difficult
to anything on the track in the beginning because the air
and track temperatures were so cool. We made some changes
with the bike and tried a different tyre this afternoon that
gave us a bit more grip. I was consistently going quicker
and after we made some small changes to the suspension I managed
to do my fastest ever lap around here on race tyres. The bike
is feeling pretty good and I can do one minute 41 second laps
quite easily, so if I can do that come Sunday we might be
quite near to the front!”
Kousuke Akiyoshi:
“I am pleased with my day today as I managed to improve
my time in both sessions. I now know the track a bit better
and cannot wait to get out there again tomorrow. I am really
looking forward to the race as it will be my first GP in Europe
and I have been told that Jerez is a great place to race at
in a MotoGP.”
Paul Denning – Team Manager:
“Jerez always produces very close lap times and today
was no exception. The top 15 riders were covered by less than
a second, which means that the fine details of the settings
for the Rizla Suzuki, and how we get the best out of the Bridgestone
tyres, will be even more critical than usual. Point two of
a second in tomorrow’s qualifying will make a big difference
to where you start from on Sunday.
“We can’t be too displeased at our positions
today, we have John still carrying his wrist injury and Chris
with a quite heavy cold, but they are still both inside the
top eight! Hopefully with some improvements in their conditions
tomorrow and some changes in the settings of the GSV-R we’ll
be able to take some more steps forward”
Gran Premio bwin.com De Espana Free Practise Classification:
1. Carlos Checa (Honda) 1’40.851: 2. Dani Pedrosa (Honda)
+0.055: 3. Toni Elias (Honda) +0.121: 4. Casey Stoner (Ducati)
+0.320: 5. Kenny Roberts Jr (KR212V) +0.331: 7. JOHN HOPKINS
(RIZLA SUZUKI MOTOGP) +0.394: 8. CHRIS VERMEULEN (RIZLA SUZUKI
MOTPGP) +0.454: 20. KOUSUKE AKIYOSHI (RIZLA SUZUKI MOTOGP)
+1.698:
|
