Hopkins on top in Shanghai
 John
Hopkins stormed his Rizla Suzuki GSV-R to the top of the timesheets
on the first day of practice for Sunday’s Grand Prix
of China.
Hopkins (2’01.204, 44 laps) showed his intentions for
this weekend’s race during this morning’s first
practice session, as the Anglo-American ace was consistently
in first place – only being edged into second in the
closing moments by Championship leader Casey Stoner.
During the afternoon session Hopkins only used one set of
Bridgestone race tyres and his times continued to come down.
He recorded his fastest time on his 21st lap of the 5.281km
Shanghai International Circuit, as the new generation of Bridgestone
tyres continued their impressive performance.
Chris Vermeulen (P12, 2’01.991, 43 laps) was pleased
that he was able to get a full day’s dry practice in
today. The 24-year-old Australian is at Shanghai for only
the second time and the amount of dry practice he had last
year was minimal. He continued to improve on his lap times
throughout the day and although he was in 12th place overall
– just over 0.7 seconds off team-mate Hopkins –
he knows that he can improve tomorrow and make a serious challenge
over the weekend.
Today’s practice sessions were held in warm, humid
and hazy conditions. Weather forecasts for the rest of the
weekend vary from thunderstorms to bright sunshine with very
high humidity - Rizla Suzuki MotoGP must cover all eventualities
during tomorrow’s final free practice session and afternoon
qualifying. The team will do all it can to make sure that
Hopkins and Vermeulen are in the best shape possible in readiness
for Sunday’s 22-lap race that gets underway at 15.00hrs
local time (07.00hrs GMT).
John Hopkins:
“First of all I want to say hats off to Bridgestone!
We have been using really good tyres straight away; they have
really done their research from last year and stepped right
up to the plate! The Suzuki is also doing really good things.
I knew it was going to be a track that would suit the 800,
as Shanghai has some good flowing corners and we spend a lot
of the time on the edge of the tyres and have to do quite
a bit of late braking. At the moment I am just going from
kerb to kerb and the mix of the bike and tyres makes it feel
like I’m on rails! We have made some improvements over
the day and we still have a couple of little bits to sort
out tomorrow. Competition is really close again and we need
to find every tenth of a second we can and keep our heads
down. Regardless of what the weather brings tomorrow we’ll
be up for it and come out swinging!”
Chris Vermeulen:
“It was alright out there today! China is probably
the GP circuit that I know the least, because last year we
had a lot of wet sessions and I only did three laps in the
race before I crashed. It was good that we got a full dry
day in today; I have managed to learn a lot about my riding
around here and find my lines. The bike is working well and
I can consistently do the lap-times. We do have a couple of
problems in two corners and we hope we will be able to get
them solved tomorrow and be on the pace. It’s tight
in the top 10, so I need to be up in there and make sure that
I have a chance of a good race on Sunday.”
Paul Denning – Team Manager:
“The Rizla Suzuki was certainly part of the action
at the Turkish GP a couple of weeks ago and it looks like
we’ve got the potential to again challenge at the front.
It’s incredibly close with at least eight riders seeming
to be capable of running in the low 2’01s. The encouraging
thing for us is that John ran the same set of tyres during
the whole afternoon session and was able to continually increase
his speed and bring down his times.
“Chris has a bit of a problem through the last section
of the track – just two corners – and if we can
get that sorted tomorrow I am sure he will be taking steps
towards the front of the pack!”
Sinopec Great Wall Lubricants GP of China Free Practice
Classification:
1. JOHN HOPKINS (RIZLA SUZUKI MOTOGP) 2’01.204: 2.
Marco Melandri (Honda) +0.099: 3. Dani Pedrosa (Honda) +0.129:
4. Nicky Hayden (Honda) +0.142: 5. Loris Capirossi +0.161:
12. CHRIS VERMEULEN (RIZLA SUZUKI MOTOGP) +0.787:
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