Bushiee46
04-03-2007, 16:14
http://www.gixerjunkies.net/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=8100&stc=1&d=1173021264
With the start of the Moto GP season just over a week away, we continue our team-by-team look at all the competitors with Suzuki.
Rizla Suzuki Moto GP
Riders: John Hopkins & Chris Vermeulen
The sleeping giants of Moto GP have spent the winter telling everybody how they've woken up since the powers that be announced a move to 800cc machinery for this season.
They may have a point. The first team to have their new bike close to something like finished, John Hopkins and Chris Vermeulen found themselves ahead of the rest of the field throughout testing in November and December.
Whether such a huge gap over their rivals bred complacency is debatable, but the fact is that they have been pegged back over the past two months as the powerhouses of Honda, Yamaha and Ducati went development-crazy.
So as the new season approaches, Suzuki find themselves in much the same place that they finished the last one, knocking on the door of the podium one weekend, and languishing on the fringes of the top ten the next.
Hopkins is perhaps the most underrated rider in the Moto GP field, a point proven as last season he only qualified outside the top ten on three occasions - and those all coincided with tyre supplier Bridgestone bringing rubber not equal to that of Michelin. A maiden podium will be his first aim, and a win is not out of the question either.
Vermeulen has had a funny old pre-season. Consistently behind Hopkins when the bike has been good and consistently ahead of the American when it has not.
The Australian, who took two poles in his rookie season, is growing in stature and is a good foil for Hopkins in terms of pace and racecraft. And like the American, don't be surprised to see him on the top step of the podium
As well as the two regulars, test rider Kosuke Akiyoshi is set to make wildcard appearances at both the Spanish and Japanese races, but don't expect too much from a man with only one Moto GP start to his name.
Predication: Hopkins and Vermeulen are both good enough to win races regularly, but unless Honda and Yamaha make a real hash of their bikes, it's hard to see where they can overcome the regular front-runners.
With the start of the Moto GP season just over a week away, we continue our team-by-team look at all the competitors with Suzuki.
Rizla Suzuki Moto GP
Riders: John Hopkins & Chris Vermeulen
The sleeping giants of Moto GP have spent the winter telling everybody how they've woken up since the powers that be announced a move to 800cc machinery for this season.
They may have a point. The first team to have their new bike close to something like finished, John Hopkins and Chris Vermeulen found themselves ahead of the rest of the field throughout testing in November and December.
Whether such a huge gap over their rivals bred complacency is debatable, but the fact is that they have been pegged back over the past two months as the powerhouses of Honda, Yamaha and Ducati went development-crazy.
So as the new season approaches, Suzuki find themselves in much the same place that they finished the last one, knocking on the door of the podium one weekend, and languishing on the fringes of the top ten the next.
Hopkins is perhaps the most underrated rider in the Moto GP field, a point proven as last season he only qualified outside the top ten on three occasions - and those all coincided with tyre supplier Bridgestone bringing rubber not equal to that of Michelin. A maiden podium will be his first aim, and a win is not out of the question either.
Vermeulen has had a funny old pre-season. Consistently behind Hopkins when the bike has been good and consistently ahead of the American when it has not.
The Australian, who took two poles in his rookie season, is growing in stature and is a good foil for Hopkins in terms of pace and racecraft. And like the American, don't be surprised to see him on the top step of the podium
As well as the two regulars, test rider Kosuke Akiyoshi is set to make wildcard appearances at both the Spanish and Japanese races, but don't expect too much from a man with only one Moto GP start to his name.
Predication: Hopkins and Vermeulen are both good enough to win races regularly, but unless Honda and Yamaha make a real hash of their bikes, it's hard to see where they can overcome the regular front-runners.