No new Suzuki motor until Le Mans

Factory Suzuki duo John Hopkins and Chris Vermeulen will have to wait until the French GP at Le Mans before they can get their hands on Suzuki’s new GSV-R motor.

As expected, this weekend’s Shanghai GP in China has come too soon for engineers to supply the motor, which American Hopkins completed a successful debut on in testing at the Istanbul Park last month.

Designed for better corner exit acceleration and mid-range power, Hopkins was delighted with the Turkey test.

But his fears that Suzuki wouldn’t have time to ship enough new engines to Shanghai was confirmed.

The plan now is to have the motor ready in time for the French GP on May 23, 2007 and team boss Paul Denning said: “It was a step in the right direction but the plan is now to bring them to Le Mans.”

Despite the engine disappointment, Hopkins reckons he’s still going to a contender for the podium in Sunday’s race, hoping to go one better than his fourth place in Shanghai 12 months ago.

Hopkins said: “That’s the main objective. We just want to run at the front every race and the last couple of tracks we’ve proved that we can run at the front consistently.

They haven’t been really Suzuki or my favourite tracks in the past, but they’ve seemed too have worked out very good. Shanghai It was one of the best races I had last year.

“I had a good fight with Colin Edwards and slightly lost out on the podium there. I’ve been looking forward to coming to this track.

“It’s got a long straight and it’s going to be a little bit of a deficit to the old red and white bikes but we can always draft. If we get stuck in the draft I think every other bike can hang with them,” said the Rizla rider.