MotoGP – Sepang – Hopkins hoped to do better

John Hopkins finished in eighth place, losing a head-to-head battle that lasted almost the entire race against teammate Vermeulen. Although the package available for today's 21 laps seemed optimal, 'Hopper' wasted precious time in the early stages by making mistakes and even going off the track. There was no shortage of fun, but the Anglo-American would certainly have preferred the fight to have been for the podium area. Together with Chris and Nobuatsu Aoki, tomorrow he will be joined by Ben Spies, new AMA Superbike champion, for further testing in Sepang.

“Going into today's race we had high hopes thanks to the way the bike and tires had worked over the weekend – admitted the pilot – but it simply didn't happen again. I made a good start and also got to turn two well, but then I made some mistakes during the first laps and even went off the track once. From then on it was purely a Rizla Suzuki battle between me and Chris, we kept getting over each other. It was nice to race with him and it was fun, I would have preferred if the fight had been first/second or second/third, but it wasn't like that! I have to say "hats off" to all my mechanics who worked so hard this weekend! Now we have to go to Valencia and recover fourth position in the championship at the last race of the year.”

Chiara Folci