Hopkins leads final free practice
Rizla Suzuki's John Hopkins continued to show strength as he topped the final MotoGP free practice session for this weekend's Chinese Grand Prix at Shanghai
Hopkins, who was second fastest in yesterday's morning practice session before topping the afternoon session, showed pace throughout today's session, leading the times for the majority of the sixty minutes.
His closest rival was Ducati's Casey Stoner, who took over the top spot with sixteen minutes remaining in the session and looked like holding onto the top spot until a late lap by Hopkins after the chequered flag was 0.076 seconds faster.
Just over a tenth behind Hopkins was Fiat Yamaha rider Colin Edwards, followed by Repsol Honda's Dani Pedrosa, Edwards' illustrious teammate Valentino Rossi and Stoner's teammate Loris Capirossi.
Less than a second covered the top eleven bikes, which didn't include Turkey second-place finisher Toni Elias in fourteenth, who was one place behind Pramac Ducati's Alex Barros.
Pos Rider Bike Time 1. John Hopkins Suzuki 2:00.571 2. Casey Stoner Ducati 2:00.647 + 0.076 3. Colin Edwards Yamaha 2:00.674 + 0.103 4. Dani Pedrosa Honda 2:00.732 + 0.161 5. Valentino Rossi Yamaha 2:00.826 + 0.255 6. Loris Capirossi Ducati 2:00.848 + 0.277 7. Nicky Hayden Honda 2:01.006 + 0.435 8. Marco Melandri Honda 2:01.072 + 0.501 9. Randy De Puniet Kawasaki 2:01.251 + 0.680 10. Chris Vermeulen Suzuki 2:01.289 + 0.718 11. Carlos Checa Honda 2:01.488 + 0.917 12. Alex Hofmann Ducati 2:01.584 + 1.013 13. Alex Barros Ducati 2:01.662 + 1.091 14. Toni Elias Honda 2:01.828 + 1.257 15. Shinya Nakano Honda 2:02.295 + 1.724 16. Kenny Roberts Jr KR 2:02.447 + 1.876 17. Sylvain Guintoli Yamaha 2:02.598 + 2.027 18. Makoto Tamada Yamaha 2:02.659 + 2.088
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