Both riders held their seventh and eighth positions at the start and were still battling over seventh position 21 laps later. Hopkins made a final attempt to pass Vermeulen on that last lap, but the Australian held him off to claim the extra point.
With
Marco Melandri finishing second at Sepang, just five points now separates Melandri, Hopkins and Vermeulen in the fight for fourth in the world championship, with one round to go.
"It was a tough race and I am totally exhausted!" admitted Vermeulen. "I got in a little battle with a few guys at the start, but John and myself both made little mistakes and we dropped back a couple of spots. I also had a bit of a vibration issue with the bike under acceleration and it took me a while to figure out how to ride fast with that. I just got my head down and pushed as hard as I could and then I saw on my pit-board that it was plus-zero with John and it stayed that way for the whole race! We passed each other a number of times and I eventually got in front and held him off. It was good to beat him as it closes the gap in the championship, but we weren't near the podium and we still have a lot of work to do."
"Going in to today's race we had pretty high hopes with the way the bike and tyres were working this weekend, but it just didn't really happen for us," agreed 2008 Kawasaki rider Hopkins. "I got off the line pretty well and through turn one and then I made a few mistakes in the first few laps and even ran off the track at one time. From then on it was just a Rizla Suzuki battle with me and Chris going back-and-forth. It was good to race with him and it was a bit of fun, but I wish we had been fighting for one-and-two or two-and-three, but it was not to be! We now have to go to Valencia and claw our way back into fourth place in the championship at the last race of the year."
