Rizla Suzuki MotoGP racer John Hopkins secured his sixth top-five finish of the season as he raced to a hard earned fifth place at the Assen TT today.
Starting from sixth on the grid, Hopkins made an excellent start and was running in second position over the first half of the race. The hard-battling Anglo-American then encountered some vibration problems with his bike and lost valuable time to the chasing pack. Hopkins fought to keep them off but was passed by eventual winner Valentino Rossi and both of the factory Hondas. Hopkins’ points haul today moves him up into fourth place in the world championship classification.
Chris Vermeulen had a race that he will probably want to forget. Having started from pole position, after his brilliant wet weather qualifying performance yesterday, the high-flying Australian got off to a good start and his early race form was as good as anything he’d produced all weekend. He was in a strong points scoring position, but a mistake from Randy de Puniet on lap 12 saw Vermeulen pushed into the gravel as the Kawasaki rider crashed into him. Vermeulen rejoined the race but the damage was too much for him to mount a serious assault, and although he finished the race he was just outside the points with a 16th place finish.
Today’s race was held in dry but overcast conditions and was watched by over 91,000 spectators at trackside. Rossi took the victory with championship leader Casey Stoner just behind him and reigning World Champion Nicky Hayden in third.
Rizla Suzuki MotoGP will be back in action in two weeks time at the Sachsenring in Germany, for round 10 of the MotoGP World Championship on Sunday 15th July.
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