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2007-01-25 Rizla Suzuki team ends Sepang test on high note
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 Rizla Suzuki MotoGP racer John Hopkins completed 2007’s first test at
Sepang in Malaysia today with a simulated race distance, bettering his
990cc race time from 2006 by an incredible seven seconds.
The Anglo-American star conducted the long distance test during the
hottest part of the day, with track surface temperatures rising to over
60°C. His overall time for the twenty flying laps was 41 minutes and
one second, in comparison to his 2006 time of 41’08. The new Suzuki
GSV-R800 performed with consistency over the race simulation and,
allied to the latest generation of Bridgestone race tyres, the Rizla
Suzuki MotoGP package is looking increasingly competitive for the
forthcoming season.
Hopkins and team-mate Chris Vermeulen also tested some of the latest
Bridgestone qualifying tyres for the first time on an 800cc Suzuki and
were able to give very consistent data to the engineers. Hopkins
recorded a quickest time of 2’01.026 with Vermeulen clocking a fastest
time of 2’01.691 on their qualifiers to give them second and fifth
place respectively on the timesheets.
Vermeulen also completed a race simulation and was very pleased with
the results, even though he was hampered by the weather half way
through as rain started to lightly fall. He completed 43 laps today and
recorded his best ever lap around Sepang. Hopkins completed 38 laps and
the data that he and Vermeulen collected will prove valuable to
themselves, the team and Suzuki’s hard-working engineers as they move
forward onto the next test.
Rizla Suzuki MotoGP now travels to Phillip Island in Australia for the
second test of 2007, starting on Tuesday 30th January. The first race
of the MotoGP season is in Qatar on Saturday 10th March.
John Hopkins:
I’m really happy with the way the
week has gone. We’ve got a new bike here so at first we needed to get
it set-up, which we did on the first day to the way I liked it and from
then it’s only been simple little changes. We have tested a lot of
tyres for Bridgestone and everything has been going really well. Today
I tried some qualifiers as I’d never used them on the 800 before and it
was good to see how they worked. Then I did a race distance and I’m
really excited about how that went! We did it at the hottest part of
the day and we managed to run a very competitive time. Everything at
the moment feels good and overall I’m thoroughly happy with it. This is
a big year for me and I’ve got a couple of new personal sponsors with
Monster Energy drinks and Amp’d Mobile coming on board, so I really
want to do well for them as well as for Suzuki, Rizla and all the
people who have supported us!
Chris Vermeulen:
It has been a good test on the whole.
We got three good days of dry weather – which is unusual here in
Malaysia – and we’ve got through lots of work. We tested front, rear
and qualifying tyres from Bridgestone, as well as a lot of Suzuki test
items. John and I both had the 2007 bike which was good to use and
found some good things with it. I went quicker and quicker and I did my
fastest ever lap around the circuit during this test. This afternoon we
did a race distance which was quicker than I did in the race last year
– even with some rain falling over on the back of the circuit. I felt
really comfortable out there and I am now looking to getting to Phillip
Island and carrying on from here!
Paul Denning – Team Manager:
The test couldn’t have gone any
better, apart from maybe Mr Rossi going 0.09 slower on his qualifier so
that John would have been fastest on all three days! The new 2007 GSV-R
has further improved from the prototype that we used last year. Both
riders got through a mountain of work and the reliability and
consistency of the new bike has been superb. Obviously it’s nice to be
on the top of the timesheets, but it is more pleasing to see how
competitive we were on the long runs during the final day. We have also
provided the Bridgestone guys with lots of good data to assist them
with their development programme.
It’s great to start the year with a
base package that works well and is giving the riders good confidence,
but we know that the competition is already at a good level and will no
doubt improve rapidly over the forthcoming tests. We still have areas
of the bike that could improve and the factory will be focusing on them
quite aggressively over the next few weeks. We won’t get too carried
away over these results from Sepang because this is a good track for
Bridgestone and, historically, a relatively good one for the GSV-R. We
are looking forward to getting to Australia and hoping that we can be
close to the other bikes around there as we struggled a bit last year.
If we can come away from Phillip Island with a positive test result
then everyone at Rizla Suzuki MotoGP will be very much looking forward
to the first Grand Prix of the season!
1. Valentino Rossi - Yamaha Racing 2m 00.936s.
2. John Hopkins - Rizla Suzuki 2m 01.026s.
3. Loris Capirossi - Ducati MotoGP 2m 01.274s.
4. Dani Pedrosa - Repsol Honda 2m 01.664s.
5. Chris Vermeulen - Rizla Suzuki 2m 01.691s.
6. Randy De Puniet - Kawasaki Racing 2m 01.878s.
7. Nicky Hayden - Repsol Honda 2m 01.884s.
8. Colin Edwards - Yamaha Racing 2m 02.266s.
9. Casey Stoner - Ducati MotoGP 2m 02.407s.
10. Marco Melandri - Honda Gresini 2m 02.489s.
11. Carlos Checa - Honda LCR 2m 02.583s.
12. Alex Barros - Pramac d'Antin 2m 02.630s.
13. Toni Elias - Honda Gresini 2m 02.927s.
14. Alex Hofmann - Pramac d'Antin 2m 03.040s.
15. Shinya Nakano - Konica Minolta Honda 2m 03.077s.
16. Makoto Tamada - Yamaha Tech 3 2m 03.308s.
17. Kenny Roberts JR - Team Roberts 2m 03.330s.
18. Olivier Jacque - Kawasaki Racing 2m 03.592s.
19. Shinichi Ito - Bridgestone MotoGP 2m 03.973s.
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