Hopkins: Bridgestone working hard on qualifying tyres

American John Hopkins believes Bridgestone is making big strides with its soft qualifying tyres. 

The factory Suzuki rider tested five new qualifying tyres in a one-day test session at the Catalunya circuit earlier this week and clocked an impressive best lap of 1.41.40.

That was 0.4s faster than Valentino Rossi’s Catalunya pole position, with Hopkins confident that the Japanese tyre manufacturer is edging closer to rivals Michelin with its qualifying rubber.

While Bridgestone has won five out of the seven races in 2007, Michelin has claimed pole position in six races, and Hopkins is one rider looking for an improvement with the qualifying tyres.

After his impressive performance in Catalunya, Hopkins told MCN: “I found a really good one in the five I ran which I’m happy with. Right now I’m busting my arse to squeeze onto the first two rows in qualifying.

“With the horsepower of the 800 and the softer feel of the motor off the corners it doesn’t eat into the qualifier like with the 990 so they don’t feel as planted.

And the 24-year-old added: Everyone is in the same boat on Bridgestone, but I think the overall qualifying can improve. As far as race tyres go I’m really happy, they’ve got it pretty sorted as the results have shown.”