MotoGP 2005

Team Suzuki MotoGP racers Kenny Roberts Jr and John Hopkins finished today’s Marlboro Malaysian Motorcycle Grand Prix in seventh and ninth places respectively.

Following on from the hard work and consistently fast times that both riders have put in over the weekend, the result was another step forward for Suzuki. Roberts Jr’s position was his best dry race finish of the season – his second top-10 in succession - and reiterates that the team are moving in the right direction.

Both riders lost positions early on in the race due to a first lap incident - with Hopkins coming off the worst. He was relegated from his fantastic qualifying position of third down to 12th. He fought his way up to ninth and joined in a four-way battle with team-mate Roberts Jr and the Hondas of Max Biaggi and Alex Barros. His ninth place was also his second finish inside the top-10 in the last two races.

Today’s race was watched by over 47,000 spectators who were treated to some fantastic racing in the high temperatures. Loris Capirossi on the Bridgestone-shod Ducati won his second race in the space of eight days. Valentino Rossi finished in second place and regained his MotoGP World Championship title – for the fifth consecutive year.

Team SUZUKI MotoGP now move on to Losail in Qatar for round 14 of the championship on Saturday 1st October, an event which will be held in scorching conditions and should be the ultimate test of riders, machinery and tyres.

Kenny Roberts Jr:
“The race in Japan was confusing, but here I was allowed to be consistent and I could pretty much ride exactly where I thought I was going to be - as far as race times. We were able to stay consistent and we had a couple of guys go down which brought us up in the order. We are really, really close in as much as if we get something engine-wise to accelerate and run with the other guys, we’ll be right there. The tyre combination that Bridgestone have given us and the torque improvements since Brno have all helped a lot. Now the biggest thing is that the traction control is working much, much better. We now need to get some kind of wheelie control on there - which will help us even more. It’s those little refinements that will put us more and more up the pecking order.”

John Hopkins:
“Damn, it was a hot race! We were nowhere near where we wanted to finish. It’s disappointing really but right now with our horsepower disadvantage we have to ride the bike a lot differently – with a lot of corner speed. When we run a lot of corner speed that’s when our lap times come but if we get stuck behind the Ducatis and Hondas we can’t get past them and they hold us up a bit. The thing is that the Honda guys pretty much park it at the apex of the corner and worry about their drive out. When we are behind them we can’t ride how we would like to. But we did what we could and I’m not going to lie, I gave it everything I had and that’s where we ended up. We’ve just got to try and get a better start – I braked way too early for the first corner, got hit on the first lap and went back to 12th. Now I’ll work a little harder in Qatar and go for that first podium!”

Paul Denning – Team Manager:
“The result was not what we wanted but it was close to what I expected. The other guys found some improvements this morning in the areas they were struggling with yesterday and that meant that pretty much everyone was on their normal game. I have to congratulate both riders for a strong and consistent performance. Really though, for John, it was all over in the first lap when he got punted off and dropped from his third place on the grid back to 12th but there are a lot of positives to take again from today. For the second week running both bikes were safely in the top-10, we finished only 17 seconds from first place – the closest we have been in the dry this season - and Kenny and John pushed hard and diced with riders like Biaggi and Barros - who are both on extremely good motorcycles. It’s hot here but it will be even hotter next weekend in Qatar, where hopefully we will continue our upward progress.”

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