Front row comeback for tough guy Hopkins

Saturday, 16 August 2008

After breaking bones in his left leg at Assen at the end of June John Hopkins has bounced back in qualifying at a wet Brno to secure a front row start.

Kawasaki´s John Hopkins will get away from the front row in Sunday´s Cardion ab Grand Prix Ceske republiky MotoGP race after defying the odds in a difficult wet qualifying session at Brno on Saturday.

The resilient Anglo-American rider has made an impressive return to the track after a three-race absence, to record his first top three start of the season, after a difficult debut campaign with `Team Green´.

Hopkins intelligently elected to put a softer compound Bridgestone wet tyre on his Ninja ZX-RR before conditions worsened around the 5.403km track and set his quickest time on lap six of ten.

`I am mainly happy for Kawasaki because it has been a long time and we are starting to make improvements,´ Hopkins said. `The bike is a lot better this weekend than it has been at previous Grands Prix.´

`It is good to come back a bit more mentally focussed. You never really forget how to ride a motorcycle and I am really happy to be back on it,´ added `Hopper´.

The former Suzuki rider also stated, `Today is only a small part of the weekend. Sunday is the big day and we know we have got a good set-up and can do the lap times so we just have to keep making the same improvements step-by-step and improve our season overall.´