Appears Hopkins made the right move...just wait til Ant finds form too. :up:Quote:
Originally Posted by jim mcglinchey
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Appears Hopkins made the right move...just wait til Ant finds form too. :up:Quote:
Originally Posted by jim mcglinchey
He'll find it sooner rather than later too...
13 Apr 2008
HOPKINS ON A HIGH AFTER ESTORIL
The Portuguese Grand Prix took place today at Estoril and Kawasaki rider, John Hopkins, claimed his best ever finish at the circuit. The 24-year-old Anglo American rode over the line in fifth position after 28 laps, giving him his first top five position at Estoril, which is famously hard on bikes, riders and tyres.
However, Hopkins, his Ninja ZX-RR and the Bridgestone rubber he was running, all held up against the violent assault of the gruelling race. His ride also provided him with his best finish so far since joining Kawasaki, beating his previous highest placing, a seventh, at Jerez last month.
Meanwhile, team mate Anthony West, fared less well, passing the chequered flag in a disappointing 16th position after struggling to find his form. He will now aim to up his game and claim some much-needed points in the forthcoming rounds after further testing at Estoril tomorrow.
The next race is at Shanghai in two weeks' time. It will be Hopkins' centenary round in MotoGP so with that to celebrate, and buoyed by today's excellent result, he will no doubt be looking to emulate his podium finish at the Chinese circuit last year. But on a green bike this time!
John Hopkins: 5th Position
"I'm really pleased as my aim was for a top five finish today. I got a really good start and the first lap was quite frantic as I went around the outside of a few riders, before settling into a rhythm with the leading pack. There was a bit of rain to contend with in the opening laps and I made some small mistakes, which caused me to drop back a little. Around halfway, the grip level dropped but I raced as hard as possible as Casey Stoner was closing the gap between us. Our main area to improve on is qualifying, as we keep giving ourselves a lot of work to do in the race by having a poor grid position. I'm looking forward to Shanghai: the Kawasaki will be better suited to it and we can hopefully achieve an even stronger result there."
Anthony West: 16th Position
"What can I say about today that the result doesn't already say for me? It would be easy to say I'm disappointed but, if I'm completely honest, the main feeling is one of intense frustration. I just can't seem to get the bike to work for me; all weekend it's felt nervous and it's constantly moving around. I can ride round the problems on the straights and into the turns but I'm losing massive amounts of time on the exit, where the bike feels like it's going to throw me off if I so much as touch the throttle. John doesn't seem to have the same problem, which just makes it doubly frustrating. We'll aim to find a solution during testing tomorrow, because I'm not here to run around at the back of the field."
Michael Bartholemy: Kawasaki Competition Manager
"To finish fifth here is superb as Estoril is not a place we've been particularly strong at in the past. John rode a fantastic race and he was also the second Bridgestone rider to cross the line. Now I hope we can continue to move forward at the next race, where the track is more suited to our Ninja ZX-RR and our Bridgestone tyres. I had hoped for a better result from Anthony. Normally he's able to turn it on in the race and improve on both his practice and qualifying performance, but it just didn't happen for him today. We need to find the root cause of his problems, and then come up with a solution, because the current situation isn't good for him and it isn't good for Kawasaki."
MotoGP Race Result:
1. Jorge Lorenzo (SPA) Fiat Yamaha 45'53.089; 2. Dani Pedrosa (SPA) Repsol Honda Team +1.817; 3. Valentino Rossi (46) Fiat Yamaha +12.723; 4. Colin Edwards (USA) Yamaha Tech 3 +17.223; 5. John Hopkins (USA) Kawasaki Racing Team +23.752; 6. Casey Stoner (AUS) Ducati Marlboro Team +26.688; 7. James Toseland (GBR) Yamaha Tech 3 +32.631; 8. Chris Vermeulen (AUS) Rizla Suzuki MotoGP +36.382; 9. Loris Capirossi (ITA) Rizla Suzuki MotoGP +38.268; 10. Shinya Nakano (JPN) Honda Gresini +1'01.306; 16. Anthony West (AUS) Kawasaki Racing Team +1'23.629
14 Apr 2008
FURTHER IMPROVEMENTS FOR KAWASAKI
Following a superb fifth place finish for John Hopkins yesterday at Estoril, the Kawasaki Racing Team concluded today's post-race test with more positive results. Both Hopkins and Anthony West improved on their race lap times, whilst making further set-up enhancements to their Ninja ZX-RR machines.
Having achieved his best result so far for Kawasaki yesterday, Hopkins worked closely with Bridgestone to evaluate a series of rear tyre options. The 24-year-old improved his race pace around the 4.182km circuit using a new specification rear tyre, which he felt made a big difference to the handling of his machine.
Hopkins also refined the set-up of the chassis that was introduced to the racetrack for the first time in Friday's practice session, and concluded his test with a few practice starts. The Anglo-American is confident of a good result at the next round in China, where he achieved his first MotoGP podium last year.
West returned to the track today determined to improve his pace after his disappointment with yesterday's race result. The Australian rider and his crew made some alterations to his machine's base setting and this was successful in helping the 26-year-old to regain his feeling for the bike.
West also tested a new rear tyre option that somewhat improved the manoeuvrability of his Kawasaki, as it provided a much smoother corner entry and more rear traction, which boosted the Australian's confidence in both himself and his Ninja ZX-RR after such a difficult weekend.
After completing 96 laps of the Estoril circuit today West now heads to America to continue his training ahead of round four of the MotoGP championship, which takes place at the Shanghai circuit in just over two weeks time.
John Hopkins: #21: 62 Laps - 1:36.872
"Today has been useful as we've made another step forward with our race set-up. We worked closely with Bridgestone to test a lot of rear tyre options, one of which worked particularly well for us. I hope that they will be able to provide us with this specification for Shanghai as I really feel it will make a big difference to our race pace. We've also made some alterations to the chassis, which has improved the rear traction of the machine. Every time I get on board the Kawasaki it seems to get better and better, so I hope we can achieve another great result at the next round."
Anthony West: #13: 96 Laps - 1:39.065
"Following yesterday's result, I was keen to get out on the bike today to try and improve our lap times. We altered some of the machine's base settings and this enabled me to lap more consistently than during the race weekend. Although the times weren't a vast improvement, I felt that I could be much smoother through the turns and I had more confidence to push harder, even after 17 or so laps. Bridgestone gave us two tyre options to test, one of which felt particularly good and I hope we'll be able to use this in Shanghai. The next round should be much more suited to the Kawasaki, and I really want to improve my results there."
Naoya Kaneko: Kawasaki Technical Manager
"In today's test we ran through a lot of tyre options supplied by Bridgestone. This proved positive, with both riders finding improvements with a race tyre specification. With John's machine we tested various chassis, clutch and electronic components. All of these items have shown good results, but some of the components need developing further before being used in a race situation. With Anthony we concentrated on his base set-up, as he never really felt comfortable on the bike during the race weekend. Our aim was to give him more confidence on the bike and we certainly made a step forward with this, with Anthony's lap times improving today. We leave this event with some new parts for Shanghai and many plus points from the test, so I am happy overall."
Thanks for the post Roby. I get more info about the Green Machine here, than anywhere else :up:
"We are looking for riders who can get results. Thats the most important thing.." Michael Bartholemyof Kwak.
Has anyone told Ant West that ? heh heh.
Check out http://www.kawasaki-motogp.com for all the latestQuote:
Originally Posted by maxu05
also http://www.antwest13.com
We try and keep that updated with news and pics depending on how busy Ant's web manager is. Should have new Ant West merchandise up on his web site soon. Just waiting for new shirts to arrive.
Great to see Ant still upbeat even with his results thus far. His comment to Georgie Porgie (who has Bracksys gig) just before he went out on track for Estoril race when asked if he had any plans for the race " will just have to take out a few guys in front of me haha "
Cheers Jack
New shirts!!!
Are they purple!!! :)
I think Westy has to start being Westy again. Head down, ass up, and get stuck into it. Westy rode the Knackers off many a piece of junk, and got results that shouldn't have been possible. Now, he must do that again, and prove the critics wrong. Get into it Westy, what are ya waiting for.
I like Ant and his attitude but can't help but feel either his style doesn't suit the bigger capacity bikes or he's simply now out of his depth.
His still not totally fit team mate is consistently 2 seconds a lap faster.
Some difficult decisions will need to be made at Kawasaki if he doesn't improve. With Kawasaki only running 2 bikes they need to ensure that both get decent results and both contribute to testing. It's somewhat one sided at present.