Hopkins plays down Lorenzo clash. Thursday, 10th April 2008
John Hopkins has played down a 'hot-headed' clash with MotoGP rookie Jorge Lorenzo during post-race testing at Jerez last week.
Lorenzo, on pole for his first two
MotoGP
events, gave Hopkins some 'hand signals' after believing that the
Kawasaki rider was planning to tuck in behind him to set a fast lap time.
Hopper, who claims he had simply been letting the
Fiat Yamaha rider past, then lost his own temper and is thought to have reacted by pulling alongside Lorenzo and grabbing his helmet.
Speaking at Estoril, venue for this weekend's Portuguese Grand Prix, Hopkins described it as a '
racing incident' - but hopes Lorenzo will apologise.
"I guess he just misunderstood me as I was letting him go on a cool down lap and he came out, I think he thought I was going to try and follow him and get a [quick] lap time," the official MotoGP website reports Hopkins as saying.
"But he got a bit hot-headed and used some naughty gestures and once I saw that I got a bit hot-headed myself, so we had a lap of fury!
"There's a lot of testosterone out there when you are on track, and you can get hot-tempered. I hope he apologises but other than that everything is ok. It was just a racing incident," said John.
Meanwhile, Hopkins had his first ride with the new Kawasaki screamer engine during the Monday test, and was impressed by the shrieking even-firing powerplant.
"The new
bike is definitely going to be a milestone in racing," he claimed. "It's an exciting bike and an exciting engine, though there are a lot of improvements we need to make before it is race ready.
"It sounds really good and they are working really hard on it in Japan, so we hope to be racing it before the year is out," he revealed.
Hopkins, who injured his groin during pre-season testing, has finished twelfth and seventh in his first two races on the ZX-RR.
Preview - Portuguese Grand Prix. Thursday, 10th April 2008
After starting the new season on two circuits well known from winter testing, MotoGP 2008 heads to this weekend's Portuguese Grand Prix with a clean sheet of paper - and one eye on the weath
MotoGPmachines haven't ridden at Estoril, venue for round three of 18, since last September - when Dani Pedrosa, currently leading the MotoGP World Championship for the first time ever following his Jerez victory, finished a close second to Valentino Rossi.
Due to delays with the '08 Repsol
Honda
engine, Pedrosa's spring-valve powerplant hasn't been substantially changed since that race - and is thus tipped to suffer along the Estoril main straight this weekend - but the Spaniard has already defied a pre-season hand injury and set-up issues with the RC212V to take third and first in the two opening rounds.
Rossi hasn't won a race since that September victory, but returns fresh from a best-yet second place on his new
Bridgestone
tyres and hoping it'll be a case of third time lucky for his new
tyre partnership. Victory for the Italian would also end a six race losing streak - at a circuit Rossi has already won at five times in the premier class.
Between Pedrosa and Rossi in the championship standings sits The Doctor's
Fiat Yamaha team-mate and MotoGP star rookie Jorge Lorenzo, who lurks just five points behind arch-rival Pedrosa after a dramatic start to his premier-class career.
Lorenzo has taken two pole positions and two podiums from his first two MotoGP events, but - like Pedrosa - has never previously won at Estoril in any class. Being a rookie, Lorenzo will also face the additional challenge of 'relearning' the bumpy layout on an 800cc machine.
But the man to beat could well be world champion Casey Stoner, fired-up to reassert his authority after a Ducati-worst eleventh at Jerez and having finished a close third in the 2007 Estoril race - despite a clutch problem. The 22-year-old Australian is just one point behind Rossi in the points and won the 250cc race in Estoril three years ago.
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