MotoGP 2005 - Round 3

Team SUZUKI MotoGP's string of bad luck continued at the Grand Prix Alice de France today as John Hopkins was forced to start from pit-lane due to an engine management control fault.

Today started positively for both Hopkins and team-mate Kenny Roberts Jr as the two Suzuki GSV-R riders posted the second and fourth quickest times respectively in a damp morning warm-up.

Before the start of the race, held in dry but overcast conditions, Hopkins had to pull into the pit-lane at the end of the warm-up lap and change to his reserve bike. Starting nearly a lap down, he managed to catch the tail-end of the field - and pass one rider - but was not able to reel in the main pack and finished in 16th place.

A frustrated Hopkins said: "I'm absolutely devastated. We've worked hard all weekend and we qualified the bike well. I really felt we could have got a good result.

"Even on the spare bike - that didn't perform quite as well as my main bike - I was able to run at a reasonable pace but I just didn't have the target of any other riders to aim for. I'm sure my pace could have been a lot quicker if I had been with the faster guys.

"I have no idea what happened to my bike on the warm-up lap. I really feel for my team as they have worked so hard again this weekend. We now need to put this behind us and move onto the next race, and have another go."

Roberts Jr finished in a points scoring position in 13th place and his lap-times towards the end of the race were worthy of a higher placed finish. His Chief Technician Tom O'Kane said: "Kenny didn't get a good qualifying position here yesterday after he nearly crashed on his fastest lap and that showed in today's race.

"It's really difficult to pass riders at Le Mans due to the nature of the circuit but his times towards the end of the race showed that if he had got away with the leaders things might have been very different."

Team Manager Paul Denning said: "I'm really disappointed. Today was different from Shanghai, we didn't have the chance to win the race but we did have a chance for solid top-ten finishes.

"You can call it bad luck be we have to look at how we can make our luck better. We can't afford to blame bad luck when that's the only type of luck coming.

"I feel sorry for John but he never gave up and showed a true racing spirit by riding hard and completing a Grand Prix from what was basically a hopeless position.

"Kenny's pace was good towards the end and showed that race-long consistency is there from the Bridgestone tyres.

"We now have a further day's testing here tomorrow with some new engine and chassis parts as well as some prototype Bridgestone tyres. We start working on improving our chances of success tomorrow."

Today's race was won by World Champion Valentino Rossi on a Yamaha in front of a crowd of over 75,000. The next round of the MotoGP world Championship will be at Mugello in Italy on June 5th.

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