Sunday, March 20, 2011

Hopkins to replace Bautista at Jerez

From Rizla Suzuki

Rizla Suzuki will not be able to replace the injured Álvaro Bautista in Sunday's Qatar Grand Prix MotoGP World Championship event, after exhausting all possible scenarios to get the Rizla Suzuki GSV-R on the grid.

The two riders most likely to replace Bautista – who broke his femur on Friday - are both unavailable, with John Hopkins in America and unable to get to Qatar in time and Nobuatsu Aoki in Japan where travel is very difficult due the terrible earthquake and tsunami tragedy that struck his country last week. The Suzuki management also made tentative approaches to several Moto2 riders that have MotoGP experience, but none of these riders were available due to commitments to their respective teams for the first race of the season.

Hopkins will join the team for the next round of the season at Jerez in Spain as a replacement for Bautista - while the Spaniard continues on his road to recovery.

Bautista is comfortable in hospital following the surgery to pin his left femur Saturday morning. He plans to return to Spain early next week to begin his recuperation with a view to being back in MotoGP as soon as possible.

"The reason for the crash was quite simple - pushing too hard in this section without enough temperature in the new tire – very similar to Rossi's accident in Mugello last year," said team manager Paul Denning. "But the real reasons behind that - maybe feeling some pressure after losing track time on Thursday night with the arm pump, wanting to get back into the top group of lap-times as soon as possible – are more complex and unfortunately Álvaro paid a heavy price. This sport is very extreme, and the edge between success and disaster is very small.

"With regard to the Qatar GP, we really wanted to find a suitable rider and have the Rizla Suzuki on the grid tomorrow but the logistics for John or Nobu simply didn't allow it. Also, the Moto2 teams who have riders with MotoGP experience, that we discussed the option with, were understandably reluctant to release a rider at the first round of the championship.

"John isn't happy with what happened to Álvaro, but I know he will do a solid job for us in Jerez, and we are hoping to arrange a shakedown test beforehand. Álvaro's comeback timing isn't clear, and John has BSB commitments that clash with Estoril and Le Mans, so we need to wait a while before any decisions for those races are made."

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