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| Czech Republic Grand Prix 2002, BrnoSUNDAY 25th August RACE DAY DISAPPOINTING DAY FOR RED BULL DUORed Bull Yamaha riders, Garry McCoy and John Hopkins had hoped for better
results today in Round 10 of the Moto GP World Championship, but it was just not
to be. McCoy starting from the front row was relegated to 16th place by the end
of the first lap as he was squeezed out by the pack in turns 1 and 2. McCoy who
qualified on the front row for the first time since the Malaysian Grand Prix in
2001 and was hoping for much more today. In qualifying yesterday, the Slide King
from Australia, set the fastest ever lap of the Brno circuit by a 500cc machine.
Saturday, 24th August Final Qualifying RED BULL TEAM STARTS UP FRONTGarry McCoy and John Hopkins both put in a tremendous performance in the
closing minutes of the final qualifying session at the Czech Republic GP to
start on the first and second rows respectively. McCoy who is in top physical
condition from endless hours of endurance training, is the fastest 2 stroke on
the grid. His rookie young gun teammate and good pal, John "Hopper" Hopkins was
only 0.112 seconds behind the 3 times - GP winner. "I'm pretty happy to be on the front row for tomorrow and I got a real good
run on my fast lap. It feels good to be riding the bike now that my leg is no
longer a problem for me. We really did not make any changes from yesterday just
the extra track time helped me get a better time today. This afternoon we just
used one Dunlop specification qualifier." "I'm delighted that we are on the front row and we really did not expect that
result today. Garry is riding the bike so well probably as a result of his
fitness level, he's very sharp. We used the 17 inch Dunlop front tyre and will
stay with this for tomorrow." "The qualifying session went great for me and I really want to thank my crew
for getting me on the track real quick with all the fast changes. I am really
satisfied with the bike and the tyres and we are have a great race set-up for
tomorrow, we really need to change nothing tonight and just stick with what we
have. At the 15-minute to go mark we tried a soft race tyre and I improved on my
qualifying time from yesterday so I was aiming for something special in the last
10 minutes. We put on a qualifier at the 10 minute to go mark and I was into the
2.00's and at 3 minutes to go the last qualifier went in and I had a real smooth
and comfortable run. The 17-inch front Dunlop worked for us. I am really looking
forward to tomorrow and for the second row start and I'm aiming for a good race
at the front and will focus on putting in a really strong race." "I'm really happy with how the crew and John performed today. The bike and
tyres are working really well here and we have a good race set-up for tomorrow.
John has dropped 3.5 seconds off his fastest time that he set here during two
different testing sessions, so I am very pleased with the ongoing improvement we
are making. I am really looking forward to tomorrow and we are hoping for a Top
10 finish." "This is the first time that we've had two fully fit riders and therefore the
chance to show what the Red Bull Yamaha Dunlop combination can do. It reminds us
just what we've been missing without Garry and yet another superb performance
from John." CZECH REPUBLIC GRAND PRIX "This morning my bike felt like it was a bit down on power but this afternoon
after some changes it felt better. I'm a bit surprised because I didn't think
the two strokes would be this competitive here against the four strokes. I did
my fastest lap on the final run, right at the end (lap 21/21) We just have to
wait and see what happens on Sunday." "We have improved the bike from this mornings session and we tried a different front tyre this afternoon and we are very happy with the results. I really think this morning we made it difficult for Garry in the Free Practice Session with too many different settings so we made the decision to keep it simple this afternoon and now we have a good result." John Hopkins: 14th 2.01.498 "I'm happy with my ride today and I was on the pace early on. We began the session with a race tyre and tried a bunch of Dunlops throughout the session. The first tyre we had for qualifying was really good but unfortunately I made a few little mistakes toward the end of the lap and that cost me today. So we will work on that for tomorrow." Colin Davies Race Engineer for John Hopkins "We need to do some work tonight to get the right race set-up and we have already found a decent race tyre for Sunday." Peter Clifford Director of Racing " It's great to see Garry back in the groove and I think that there is every
chance that John will join him tomorrow." |