Hopkins: Rear 59kph faster than front!

Suzuki's John Hopkins had a plan for Sunday's Grand Prix of Catalunya, but his strategy fell to the wayside 18laps into the 25lap final when his GSV-R fell down to two-cylinders and he was forced to pull off the circuit.

"I knew with the tyre situation that I was going to have a challenge this weekend," Hopkins began. "I got off to a decent start and found myself in a good group of riders. I established a good rhythm out there, which is something I haven't been able to do in some time.

"As the race shook out I was tucked in behind a good battle between my team-mate Kenny Jr. and Nicky Hayden. About halfway through the race I decided to pick up the pace and try to close in on those two and that's when Nicky's bike blew up in front of me.

"Then I regrouped and was going to try to get up with Junior and I heard something a little strange in the motor. On the next lap as I powered down the front straight the bike went down to two cylinders and I just pulled off, leaned the bike on the wall and walked back to the pits."

Despite the disappointment, Hopper stated that he'd had plenty of fun riding on the 'hard' Bridgestones.

"The tyres we ran were so hard that I was spinning it up everywhere," he explained. "That was really pretty fun. The computer showed that the rear wheel was spinning as much as 59 kph (37 mph) faster than the front exiting nearly every turn."

Hopkins also revealed that adrenaline had taken care of the pain from his broken thumb. "I'm just now getting the throbbing sensation," he said an hour after the race.

"Even though this weekend ended badly I feel we came away with some positives," John explained. "Qualifying proved Suzuki is really beginning to make positive strides. I think we had a top-10 finish in the works today before the engine problems.

"By Assen (June 26), Bridgestone will have some time to get the tyre issues sorted out and I'll have a few weeks to heal."