Hopkins signs off with a stunning podium -ozzy go- rizla-suzuki.co.uk

John Hopkins ended his Suzuki Grand Prix career in style today at
Valencia in Spain, by powering his Rizla Suzuki GSV-R to a
fantastic third place at the final race of the season.

Starting from seventh on the grid, the Anglo-American made a
fantastic start and was in fourth position by the first corner. He
then passed Nicky Hayden to move in to third on lap four and
pulled away from the 2006 World Champion. Hopkins tried to
chase down the two riders in front of him, but the gap was
already too large and he had to settle for a race against the clock
as he was never troubled by another rider for the remaining laps.
An emotional Hopkins crossed the line with his front wheel in the
air to celebrate his best-ever result at Valencia, his fourth podium
of the season and fourth position overall in the Riders’ Championship.

Chris Vermeulen had a good start from the fourth row but got
boxed in on the first lap and found himself in 12th place after the
first lap. The aggressive nature of the Australian again came to
the fore as he battled his way through the field to get up to sixth
position. He finished the race just 0.058 behind fifth place and
only just over a second off fourth. His 10 points were enough to
secure him sixth place in the championship and also confirm Rizla
Suzuki MotoGP the third position in the Team’s Championship –
missing out on second place by just one point.

Today’s race was watched by 132,500 fans at trackside and the
partisan Spanish crowd were treated to a victory by home hero
Dani Pedrosa on his factory Honda, a result that secured him
second in the championship behind today’s runner-up Casey
Stoner.

Rizla Suzuki MotoGP will now stay in Spain for a two-day test on
Tuesday and Wednesday, before continuing with a further testing
schedule through the close-season in readiness for the 2008
MotoGP World Championship that begins in Qatar in March.

John Hopkins: “I have just got to thank everyone at Suzuki -
that is my first and foremost task. To every member at Suzuki I
want to pass on my ultimate thanks to them, Suzuki has given me
my life in MotoGP and established my career and I just cannot
show enough gratitude to them. “Today the tyres and the bike
worked awesome and I just went for it from the beginning! I got
a good start and then got...” full story on rizla-suzuki.co.uk