Jerez MotoGP: John Hopkins deserves to be back in MotoGP

Factory Suzuki boss Paul Denning reckons John Hopkins has already proved that he is worthy of another chance to race in the MotoGP world championship after the American qualified in front of Loris Capirossi, Karel Abraham and Toni Elias in Jerez today.

Replacing the injured Alvaro Bautista, who broke his left femur in a practice crash for the opening race in Qatar last month, Hopkins set the 14th best time today in his first MotoGP qualifying session since the end of 2008.

The former factory Kawasaki rider posted a best time iof 1.40.310 to finish less than 0.2s away from the top ten.

Denning said today’s performance proved Hopkins, who is back to full fitness after an injury ravaged three years, should be back as a permanent fixture on the MotoGP grid in the future.

Denning said: “These two days have demonstrated two things. One that John Hopkins still deserves to be riding at the top level of the sport, and secondly, that Suzuki has done a great job to develop the GSV-R into a package that – without any adjustments at all – has allowed John to qualify the bike so competitively.

“Over two years away from riding a MotoGP machine – and the amount of braking force and mechanical grip that they have compared to production bikes – means that John’s timing is inevitably a bit off and also that whilst he’s very fit, there is a difference between normal fitness and MotoGP racing fitness.

“The 27-laps tomorrow will be tough, but irrespective of what happens in the race itself, John has done a fantastic job so far and we couldn’t have wished for a better stand-in for Álvaro.”

Hopkins, who finished third in his last race appearance for Suzuki in Valencia back in 2007, said: “All we’ve changed has been the electronics and the riding position a little bit, but that has just been some fine tuning. It’s amazing the technology that MotoGP bikes have these days – it is just insane!

“There are so many changes that can be made for each and every rider, you can easily get lost – that’s why I’m lucky to have such a good base setting to start with. We were able to put in some good times and consistent laps and I’m getting more comfortable with myself and my riding lines.

“For qualifying I was way too excited at the start and I was making too many mistakes, rushing into the corners and running wide all over the place – I was just a little bit too happy with myself out there! I had to come in and calm it down and breathe a bit before I went back out again.

“I managed to get a tow from a couple of riders because I need to get as much help as I can this weekend. At the end quite a few people crashed all around me and I was looking for someone to follow to help me learn the lines again.

“I got behind Dovizioso and Stoner on my last softer tyre and although I made quite a few mistakes on my fastest lap, I still ended up going over two seconds quicker than I did yesterday. Obviously the goal is to try and get into the top 10 and if we can that would be great.”