2007 MotoGP - Shanghai, China

Makoto Tamada.  Courtesy Yamaha Racing.

Race Results
John Hopkins secured his first MotoGP podium at the Chinese Grand Prix in Shanghai today, as he stormed his Rizla Suzuki home in third place - a result that also moves him into the top five in the MotoGP Championship.

Hopkins started from the front row of the grid and got off to a great start.  He then traded places with Marco Melandri and Dani Pedrosa early on, before getting away from them and chasing down Casey Stoner and Valentino Rossi.

The hard-charging Anglo-American caught up with the leaders and the three of them produced incredibly fast lap-times as they pulled away from the chasing pack.  Hopkins tried to make a bid for a higher position, but decided that bringing his GSV-R home for his first top-three finish was more important than any last lap heroics.

Hopkins was visibly overcome as he crossed the line in front of his cheering team, he will now go onto the next round in France with high confidence as he looks to build on this success.

Today’s race was held in warm and sunny conditions with air temperatures reaching 23°C. An exuberant crowd watched Stoner win his third race of the season on his Bridgestone-shod Ducati.

Meanwhile, Casey Stoner did a fantastic job on the Ducati and is now leading Valentino Rossi by 15 points in the Championship.  Stoner's Ducati was incredibly fast in the straightaway, sometimes pulling from way behind Rossi to way in front by the end of the straight.  The bike was also able to turn quicker and accelerate faster than Rossi's Yamaha.  Rossi made a great effort to fight back, but went wide on one turn too many and came in second in the race.

And Toni Elias made yet another error on Lap 1, coming into a turn too fast and taking out two riders.

John Hopkins:  “I am so happy with the way the race went and I want to dedicate my first podium to my Dad!  Without doubt he was watching me and he certainly helped get me through to the finish - there will be more of these to come!  I want to also give a big thanks to everyone who has supported me and especially my family.  I also owe a huge thank-you to my crew who have been right behind me all the time.  I really want to congratulate Bridgestone for the great tires and Suzuki for the huge steps forward with the bike that is enabling me to run at the front now."

“As far as the race went, I got a good start and then got passed by Marco and Dani; I started to get a bit frustrated because Casey and Valentino were pulling away.  I made a couple of aggressive maneuvers on both Dani and Marco to get round them and started to chase down the front two.  From there on it was all about trying to hang on to them, they were running a tremendous pace and I just couldn’t get past. In the end I made sure I brought the bike home in third.  I was praying nothing would go wrong in the last two laps – and it didn’t so I guess my Dad was looking down on me!  Now I can’t wait for Le Mans – I’m looking into backing this up with another podium!”

Valentino Rossi - Position: 2nd; Time: +3.036 :  "I enjoyed today a lot, it was a great race, a really exciting battle and my Yamaha was fantastic to the end.  We knew that this track would be difficult for us so to be able to fight with Stoner at 100% for the entire race was a great feeling.  Of course it's not a win, but I think second place is a very good result for us here.  I didn't want to give up and just ride for second, I wanted to try to pass him and I made some good overtaking maneuvers but wasn't able to stay in front down the straight."

"Then I made a mistake when I hit a bump when braking, had to release the brake and ran off track.  It was a pity, but when you're riding on the limit lap after lap then things like this can happen; that's racing!  Anyway I knew I couldn't give up, I had a nice battle with John and then was able to take second.  I think these twenty points are really important and we're still second in the championship.  I'm really more sad for what happened in Turkey because if we hadn't had the problem there then I might have been level with Stoner in the championship now.  But the season is long and now we have several races in Europe at some of my favorite tracks and I think we're in good shape for them!"

Qualifying
Rizla Suzuki MotoGP racer John Hopkins will start from the middle of the front row for tomorrow’s Chinese Grand Prix after qualifying in second place.

Hopkins (1’59.315, 24 laps) continued his good form around the 5.281km Shanghai circuit.  He was the quickest rider on race tires during this morning’s free practice session and for a large proportion of the qualifying session.  His fastest lap time was only bettered by Valentino Rossi.

Chris Vermeulen was unfortunately again the victim of an incident with another rider, as he looked to make up time on his last qualifying lap. Vermeulen (P15, 2’00.680, 20 laps) seemed destined for at least a second row start, but he and Loris Capirossi collided and both riders went down.

Vermeulen will now have it all to do tomorrow as he starts from the fifth row of the grid. His times on race tires had improved considerably today and he was seventh quickest before other riders started to use qualifiers, so he is still confident of a good performance tomorrow.

Tomorrow’s race is round four of the MotoGP World Championship and the 22-lap event will take place at 15.00hrs local time (07.00hrs GMT).

John Hopkins:  “I’m really happy with the way things have gone today. We’ve put in a lot of work already this weekend, to make sure we get the best set-up for the race tires.  Bridgestone has done a great job and the Suzuki GSV-R is working exceptionally well.  We have been consistent throughout all the practices and have been really running hard to make sure everything is right. Now it’s time to translate that hard work into the race.  It’s still a bit up in the air with the weather, but whatever comes we’ll be ready, and if it’s dry I’m certain we will be running near the front!”

Sinopec Great Wall Lubricants GP of China Qualifying Practice Classification
1. Valentino Rossi (ITA) Yamaha Factory Racing 1'58.424; 2. John Hopkins (USA) Rizla Suzuki MotoGP +0.891; 3. Colin Edwards (USA) Yamaha Factory Racing +0.982; 4. Casey Stoner (AUS) Ducati Marlboro Team +1.092; 5. Dani Pedrosa (SPA) Repsol Honda Team +1.178; 6. Marco Melandri (ITA) Honda Gresini +1.439; 7. Randy de Puniet (FRA) Kawasaki Racing Team +1.561; 8. Alex Barros (BRA) Pramac d'Antin Ducati +1.628; 9. Nicky Hayden (USA) Repsol Honda Team +1.663; 10. Shinya Nakano (JPN) Konica Minolta Honda +1.733

Race Preview
After the disappointment of an unrewarding weekend in Istanbul, the Fiat Yamaha Team take their quest for glory even further east this week as the MotoGP World Championship points-chase stops off in Shanghai.

The Grand Prix of China is the fourth round of eighteen on this year's grueling calendar and it promises to be one of the most challenging, with the horsepower-sapping nature of the circuit and the unpredictable weather of the world's ninth largest city sure to play their part.

The past two visits to Shanghai have provided almost polar extremes in the conditions, with a torrential downpour virtually flooding the circuit in the inaugural event of 2005 and then the intense heat of a year ago, when ambient temperatures during the race touched 31ºC, presenting an altogether different challenge.

The event has also seen stark contrasts in fortunes for Valentino Rossi, who navigated his way to victory ahead of Olivier Jacque two years ago but suffered front tire problems in the heat-wave of 2006 and was forced to retire from the race.

Colin Edwards provided some cheer for the team last year by clinching third place in what would prove to be his only podium finish of the campaign.  This year the Texan heads to China with a rostrum already under his belt, thanks to his third place at Jerez, following an encouraging start to the season that was only spoiled by an unfortunate crash in Turkey, when he was knocked out of the leading group by another rider on the first lap.  Edwards suffered a cut and swollen knee in the incident and was forced to skip a day of testing at Istanbul Park last Monday but he will be fit to resume action in Friday morning's opening free practice session.

Despite being drawn by the same hand as the Istanbul Park Circuit in Turkey, Shanghai has different characteristics that bring to mind closer comparisons with the other Herman Tilke circuit of Sepang.

Combining fast straights and hard braking zones with a series of slow and difficult corners, bike set-up is a question of finding a compromised balance and enough horsepower to deal with the longest straight on the calendar, measuring 1202 meters.  The unpredictable conditions and mixed data from previous seasons mean grip levels will be a complete mystery, making life even more difficult for Michelin's engineers as they try to adapt to new tire restrictions in the most demanding of circumstances.

Valentino Rossi - Rossi heads to Shanghai with his mind still fully focused on the job despite tire problems at Istanbul and in this race last year.  Other than when he fell and re-mounted to take 14th at Jerez last season, tenth place in Turkey was the Italian's worst-ever dry weather result since his rookie premier-class season in 2000 and he is keen to make amends this Sunday.

"We had a bad result in Turkey which we weren't expecting after being on pole, but Michelin have been working very hard to understand what went wrong and to ensure that it won't happen again," says Rossi.  "We had a good test on Monday and tried a lot of new tire combinations with China in mind, so we are going there with some ideas about what we think will work. Now it's a case of making what is hopefully the right tire choice and then seeing how things go on Friday morning.

"Last year we had a big problem in China and I couldn't finish the race, but in 2005 I had a great victory there in the wet so I have some nice memories of this track as well as some bad ones!  We know it's not ideal for our bike and maybe they're going to have to split the main straight in two - one part for Ducati and one part for the rest of us!"

"Joking aside though, it's a very long straight and we know that we're going to lack some top speed on it but the new engine modifications we had in Turkey worked well and there's a good improvement, so hopefully it won't be too serious.  We're second in the championship and we've lost a few points so we need to aim for a podium to get back on track."

Colin Edwards - Colin Edwards insists he will be back up and fighting in China despite being knocked to the canvas on the first lap of the Grand Prix of Turkey.  The Texan has boxed clever throughout testing and the opening three rounds of the season to give himself an optimum chance of success this season and he is hoping his excellent relationship with Michelin can pay dividends in a race that will place huge emphasis on tire choice.

"Turkey was a real shame because I felt I could have challenged for a podium, but that's racing and there's no point getting angry and stewing over it," reflects Edwards.  "I didn't test on Monday because my knee was pretty painful but a few days resting up at home has helped a lot and it's feeling a lot better.  After starting the season pretty well it was disappointing to have such a bad time in Turkey for the team but that's our 'bogey' circuit and now we're looking forward to punching back in China!"

"Shanghai last year was good for me and I ended up on the podium and of course I'm aiming to repeat that with improvement this year!  We know it's going to be a tricky track for us with the long straight but hopefully we can make it up on the other parts of the track.  Again the tires are going to be a big factor but Valentino and Michelin worked seriously hard on Monday in Turkey, while I was chair-bound, and I think they've got some good plans about what's going to work."

China Shanghai Circuit. Courtesy Yamaha Racing.

Suzuki Team Report
Rizla Suzuki MotoGP travels to Shanghai in China hoping that the strong race performance at the last round in Turkey can develop into podium results. 

John Hopkins scored an exciting sixth place in Istanbul last week and will certainly be looking to improve on that - and last year’s fourth at Shanghai – when he takes to the track for round four of the MotoGP World Championship on Sunday 6th May.

Hopkins qualified on the front row of the grid at last season’s race and will certainly be planning to emulate that this coming weekend.

Team-mate Chris Vermeulen will be buoyed by the performance of his 800cc Suzuki GSV-R in Turkey.  He managed a creditable 11th place after being knocked off on the first lap, and also recorded the fastest lap of the race on the penultimate lap, as the new generation of Bridgestone tires yet again proved their consistency and performance over a race distance.  Vermeulen continued in good form at the one-day test at Istanbul on the Monday after the race by setting the quickest time of the day.

Rizla Suzuki MotoGP comes to Shanghai with over twice the amount of points that it had at the same stage of the season last year, and both riders will be looking for good results from their Bridgestone tires over the 5.281km long circuit to improve on those totals.

The Shanghai track features the longest straight on the MotoGP calendar – at over a kilometre long – where last year’s 990cc machines achieved speeds in excess of 340km/h before having to brake hard for a first gear hairpin.  This is combined with a mixture of slow speed turns, sweeping curves, different gradients and the longest, most technical hairpin in the world of MotoGP.

Rizla Suzuki MotoGP takes to the track on Friday 4th May for two hour-long free practice sessions.  Saturday will see another hour’s worth of free practice in the morning before the excitement of the afternoon’s qualifying session gets underway.  Sunday’s 22-lap race will begin at 15.00hrs local time (07.00hrs GMT).

John Hopkins:  “I like the Shanghai circuit.  It is pretty testing and you have to be fast through some of the corners and hard on the brakes, so that suits me.  I led here in ’05 and was on the front row and pushing for a podium last year so I am pretty determined to go that one step better this year.  The bike is working really good and the tires that Bridgestone brought to Turkey were a huge step forward, let’s hope we get more of the same in China and can get on the rostrum!”

Chris Vermeulen:  “I didn’t finish at Shanghai last year so I will certainly want to do better than that!  The bike and tires worked really well in Turkey and I am sure that will be the case in China as well.  I am really looking forward to this race, the track is awesome and one that I enjoy riding at.  Let’s just hope we can get round without anyone knocking me off!”

Shanghai: Lap Record
D.Pedrosa (Honda) 2006, 1'59.318

Shanghai: Best Lap
D. Pedrosa (Honda) 2006, 1'59.009

Grand Prix Results: Shanghai 2006
1. D. Pedrosa (Honda) 44'07.734
2. N. Hayden (Honda) +1.505
3. C. Edwards (Yamaha) +14.634
Valentino Rossi (ITA) Yamaha DNF