Rizla Suzuki's
John Hopkins set the fourth fastest time during Friday free practice at Sepang - despite being soaked with sticky energy drink!
Most of the riders are carrying drinks bottles in the hump of their leathers to help cope with the searing Malaysian heat, but a 'malfunction' left Hopkins out of rhythm.
"I had a malfunction with my drink bottle that is fitted inside my race suit and ended up with a sticky energy drink all over me," said John. "It cost us a bit of time as I tried to fix it myself out on track and I lost a few laps – but you have to try out these things!
"That left me a bit unhappy - we never really got into a rhythm and didn't get a lot of work done. It was almost like having a rain session! But we still ended up fourth so it shows we are on the pace and should do pretty good here. Tomorrow we will try to continue where we left off this morning and keep working hard and find the best tyre for the race," added Hopper, who lapped 0.999secs slower then fastest man, and fellow
Bridgestone rider,
Loris Capirossi.
Team-mate
Chris Vermeulen was hampered by a more conventional set-up – the Australian rookie suffering with a head cold that was aggravated by the high humidity at Sepang and forced him to end the afternoon session early.
"Today was quite hard work as I have been suffering with a cold and it really sapped my energy," confirmed Chris, who set the 14th fastest lap time. "I have visited the clinic and had some treatment and hopefully I can shake it off overnight. We were only 0.9 of a second off the top three and that lap was not a difficult one to do, so I know we are capable of a better time and we will be pushing as hard as we can tomorrow to achieve better."
"It's been a difficult but promising first day for the team. Bridgestone looks to be repeating the promise shown here 12 months ago and in particular our front tyre durability is much improved from then, and from the winter tests," added team manager Paul Denning. "The fastest two guys out there seem to have a lot of pace - let's hope we can close the gap tomorrow!"
