A SOLID START 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:
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