Zoom Chris Vermeulen

Rizla Suzuki MotoGP racers John Hopkins and Chris Vermeulen produced two fantastic race performances at the Australian Grand Prix, to leave Phillip Island still in fourth and fifth places respectively in the Riders' Championship.

Hopkins got off to one of his now customary flying starts and was up into eighth place from 14th on the grid by the end of lap one. He continued to chase down other riders in front of him and although he dropped back a place as he tried to conserve his Bridgestone race tyre, the Anglo-American battled back to seventh place at the end of the race to record his best-ever result at an Australian GP.

Vermeulen also provided a tremendous racing performance as he followed his team-mate home to claim eighth place, after starting from 16th on the grid. He got off to a solid start and made up a couple of places early on before getting involved in a four-way battle with Carlos Checa, Colin Edwards and Anthony West, eventually coming out on top at the end of the 27-lap race.

Today's race was held in dry and sunny conditions and the 50,425 fans at trackside were treated to a home win as new World Champion Casey Stoner crossed the line first on his factory Ducati, giving Bridgestone its first-ever Grand Prix victory at Phillip Island.

Rizla Suzuki MotoGP now travels north to Sepang in Malaysia for the penultimate round of the 2007 World Championship next weekend, on Sunday 21st October.

John Hopkins:
“We did exactly what we wanted to do today - obviously I would have liked to have finished higher - but to get seventh from where we started is a good result. I got a great start and made a couple of places up round the outside and from there I just rode my own race. I lost a bit to the front group and tried to conserve the tyre a bit because we had chosen one of the softer compounds from our allocation. De Puniet came by me, but I then latched on to him and used him as a windbreak. It was good to see Melandri come back to us because I know how close we are in the championship so it was good to get past him later on and make up some more points. I tried to make a move on De Puniet on the last lap but made a mistake in turn one and that ruined any chance of getting past him. I really want to thank all my crew here at Suzuki as they worked their butts off this weekend to give me the best possible package for the race!”