Friday Hopper report, and Haslam too | World SBK
- From: 'the Wire' | Published: June 19th, 2009 - 12:49 pm
Just six weeks after an unfortunate turn of fate at Assen left John Hopkins seriously injured, the ex MotoGP rider made his return with the Stiggy Racing squad, and set his first laps in hot conditions at the Misano track today.?
John Hopkins, who has been performing successfully at the Italian track in recent years, struggled to find the flexibility in his left leg. Staggering off the bike after each painful session indicated the lack of muscle power build in his short period of recuperation, and proved the big absent in order to push the bike around the track. Hopkins focus in the opening day of qualifying was entirely aimed at getting back the feeling rather than pushing the lap times.
Leon Haslam opened the first day at Misano by posting the ninth fastest time on the sheets in the first qualifying. A newcomer to the track in its current direction, Haslam quickly glued with his bike at the Misano track and set his fastest time of the day at 1’37.490s, running only 0.47s off the pace set by provisional pole sitter Michel Fabrizio.
Leon Haslam, 1’37.490s:
” It has been a good day for me. We made some good progress here today and managed to find a good direction for tomorrow. We are not too far away from the front. I set my fastest lap on the fifteenth lap on the same tyre. All in all it is looking pretty good. I like the circuit a lot and have been racing here before, but that was before they changed the direction. We still have some areas we need to improve, but to ride within the top 10 at this stage is pretty good. I am happy with the results so far.
John Hopkins, 1’38.856s:
” I went to the clinic just before the start of the last session to relieve the pain a little. I only have limited movement on my bike as I still have to break away a lot of the scar tissue on the inside of the hip. Right now I am trying to get back my flexibility and work my way up again. Normally I like to hop all over the machine and be demanding over my bike. Unfortunately, right now it is hard for me to put any pressure on my left foot. In my last lap I lost nearly a second in the last two corners, it was impossible to put any weight onto my foot at all. I am continuing to work with the clinica and try and regain my flexibility. My main focus is to get healthy again and just make progress.”
Johan Stigefelt, Team Manager:
” Leon is here for the first time after they altered the direction of the track. He has been putting in a great performance and feels very confident. He set his fastest lap of the day on old tyres, and I am sure there will be more coming tomorrow. John is still in a lot of pain at the moment. It has only been six weeks since he had his injury, and we need to give him some more time to recover and come back. When he feels comfortable again, he can start pushing, but for now we will just take it step by step. There is absolutely no pressure from the team. We will give him the time to come back. ”
West aims for improvement in first Misano Practice
Anthony West opened the first day of practice at a hot Misano track, by finally showing the improvement the team had been anticipating for. After struggling through the qualifying sessions in the last three Supersport outings, the number three team in last year’s Supersport championship are eager to lift results to a higher level at Misano this weekend.
West received new parts for his Honda CBR600R machine and spent today’s 60-minute session putting testing new parts for his bike in back-to-back shifts. His best time of 1’41.401s is still almost two-seconds off the pace ran at the front of his field, but West has shown that the improvement is there, and anticipates to further climb the time sheets in tomorrow’s qualifying session.
Gianluca Vizziello–who took his maiden Superstock win at the track in 2002–gradually improved his performance throughout today’s session, and finished in a best time of 1’41.664s. Vizziello is still chasing his first top-ten finish for the team this season, and is eager to do so on his home track this weekend.
Anthony West, 1’41.401s:
” We are still not there, but have made some important improvement. There is still a lot of work to do, but I am sure we can be a lot faster tomorrow. I tried both bikes with different settings and tested the new parts the team has received for this race. One bike felt better than the other. We will be concentrating on finding the right setting on my number one bike in tomorrow’s practice. I aim to be a lot faster in qualifying tomorrow and hopefully get a good position on the grid ahead of the race on Sunday.”
Gianluca Vizziello, 1’41.664s:
” I am satisfied with today’s first session. There certainly is a lot more potential in the bike, and I aim to further improve in tomorrow’s qualifying. We still have some new parts to try in the next session, and I am confident they will bring the times further down. I will definitely be pushing it tomorrow. I am at my home track, so I will have to perform here in front of my friends and fans.”
Johan Stigefelt, Team Manager:
” We received some new parts for our Supersport machines here this weekend. Anthony is already showing some improvement and feels more comfortable on his bike. We just need to further improve tomorrow and work on some of the issues we still face. We need to fine tune some the set-up of the machines to bring down the lap times. I hope we can qualify well tomorrow, then I am confident on riding a good race on Sunday. ”
