John Hopkins and Chris Vermeulen will start tomorrow’s Grand Prix of Turkey from either end of the third row of the grid, as the two Rizla Suzuki MotoGP racers qualified in seventh and ninth respectively.
Both Suzuki men were regularly amongst the fastest riders on race tyres with Vermeulen clocking the third quickest time and Hopkins the sixth in this afternoon’s session, before all competitors started using qualifying tyres.
Vermeulen will be starting from his best grid position of the season so far and he hopes that the improved place will give him a better chance of battling with the front runners from the start.
Hopkins suffered a minor crash in this morning’s free practice session, but was unhurt during the fall. The tough Anglo-American picked himself up and was able to resume practice on his second bike as he continued preparing for Sunday’s race.
Today’s qualifying was held in dry and sunny conditions with track temperatures reaching 34°C. Valentino Rossi on his factory Yamaha took pole position for tomorrow’s 22-lap race, which gets underway at 15.00hrs local time (12.00hrs GMT).
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