Hopkins praises Bridgestone

American John Hopkins has praised Bridgestone’s new 800 tyres after he topped the timesheets in Shanghai today.

The factory Suzuki rider topped an incredibly close second free practice session this afternoon with a best time of 2.01.204 to edge out Italian Honda rider Marco Melandri.

Hopkins, who finished fourth in Shanghai last year, said: “I knew coming to this track that I’d definitely be up there from the get go.

“I knew the Suzuki with the characteristics of it so far this year and the way the engine has been working, plus the result we had last year, I knew we were going to be good at this one.

“Hats off to Bridgestone again. They really stepped it up again on this track. They had a little bit of an edge grip problem last year with the tyres and it went off a little bit on the edge in the race.

“But today (Friday) I’ve run the same set of tyres in each session – not all day – but the same tyres from a set. The tyre I found this afternoon will definitely be the one I’ll race if the conditions are dry. I did my quickest times on it and it was really good.”

Hopkins said the superior edge grip of the Bridgestone rear tyre was where it currently held a big advantage over rivals Michelin, and even Valentino Rossi praised the Japanese tyre manufacturer today after he finished sixth fastest in the second session having been third fastest this morning.

The 23-year-old added: “I think we have a little bit of a stronger edge grip. When I went from Michelin to Bridgestone at Suzuki I noticed straightaway the characteristics of the Bridgestone’s were immediately better on the edge grip. And I know now we have stronger edge grip.

“We’ve got less movement and that is helping us get on the throttle a bit earlier.”

Hopkins said while he was way down on top speed compared to the lightning quick factory Ducati’s today he was confident of being able to mount a victory challenge on Sunday.

“I would say the first seven corners and just braking is where I’m able to make up for the speed deficit. There’s places where I need to improve,” said the Derbyshire-based rider.

“I need to get a better drive coming onto the back straight in the right-hander. Even compared to Chris’s (Vermeulen) data I’m quite a bit slower than him going round the long right.

“I’ve got to pick that up tomorrow and it was a place I struggled at last year so I got to find something tomorrow.

“Other than I’m making up all of my time in T1 and T2. The bike and myself I feel like we are on rails round there.”