MotoGP 2005

Team Suzuki MotoGP racer John Hopkins looked odds-on for a hard fought top 10 position at today's Gauloises TT in Assen, but a gearshift control failure towards the end of the race, in addition to a significant reduction in tyre performance, cost him dearly.

Hopkins made a strong start and was consistently the fastest Bridgestone-shod rider during the middle of the race. He initially had a good battle with Max Biaggi, which pulled him up into contention early on, enabling him to record the ninth quickest lap-time of the race.

Hopkins was obviously disappointed to lose out late on. He said: "The luck just hasn't been running with us in the last few races. It was always going to be difficult from the fourth row but I held onto my qualifying position in the early laps. I caught the group and enjoyed being tucked in with Biaggi and that helped drag me up to the Kawasakis and Capirossi. I really felt a strong finish was on the cards, I was riding hard and the bike was working as well as it had done all weekend - the team did a great job with improving the settings.

"It then looked like I would have to settle for 11th - an improvement on qualifying - but the problem on the last three laps put paid to that. I'm obviously very disappointed but I'm full of fight for Laguna Seca. I'll be over this tomorrow and focusing everything on my efforts there."

Today's race was held in dry, overcast conditions and was watched by a huge Dutch crowd of 90,742. Current Championship leader and reigning World Champion Valentino Rossi won the race - his sixth win from the seven races so far this season.

Kenny Roberts Jr has had a difficult weekend at Assen but was looking forward to improvements for America. He said: "The character of this circuit and the base of our machine meant that it was a struggle all weekend and the race results reflect our situation.

"Hopefully we have a bunch of new stuff coming for America and that's supposed to help in the areas we are struggling in now."

Team Manager Paul Denning said: "John stated before the race that he would be happy if he could equal or better his qualifying position of 12th . It looked like he would do better than that and in the middle of the race John was the fastest Bridgestone runner but he unfortunately had problems and lost two places in the closing stages.

"Again he gave a huge effort and I'm very pleased with that. It looked at one point that we could have been on for a top-ten but the necessity for John to be so aggressive at the start to achieve the lap times meant that he probably used up our Bridgestones quicker than the other runners, and our durability wasn't as good.

"We're now stripping off the Team Suzuki MotoGP bodywork and building the all-new Red Bull Suzukis for shipping to California. They say Red Bull `Gives You Wings', let's hope it gives us some better fortune at the USGP."

Team Suzuki MotoGP now travels to Laguna Seca in America for round eight of the MotoGP World Championship. This is the first time in 10 years that the US has staged a motorcycle Grand Prix. Team Suzuki MotoGP will become Red Bull Suzuki for this event due to a one -off partnership with the leading energy drinks company. The race will be held on Sunday 10th July.

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