| Qatar Testing today - Ellison, Checa, Vermin & Hopper
This Sunday the Suzuki MotoGP and Tech 3 teams continued their preseason plans at Qatar’s Losail Circuit. Tech 3 were also seeing the debut of Carlos Checa on the Dunlop-equipped M1.
The Spanish rider did not wish to evaluate or draw conclusions from this first encounter with the bike, but he recognised the large amount of work that lies ahead. In any case, Checa was enthusiastic about this new challenge for 2006. In addition to the Catalan rider and his teammate James Ellison, John Hopkins and Chris Vermeulen also took to the track, alongside Ducati and Kawasaki’s test riders (Shinichi Ito and Olivier Jacque respectively).
For Suzuki MotoGP the Qatar Test is another chance to continue the prototype’s development. American rider Hopkins completed 60 laps of the circuit, with a best time of 1’58.87- a second faster than his fastest lap in the 2005 Qatar GP. Hopkins also tried out the newest Bridgestone compounds. Chris Vermeulen focused on chasis settings and other specifics of the GSV-R, putting in a 2’00.65 after 67 laps.
Tomorrow the teams taking part in the Test will be joined by the Camel Yamaha team of Valentino Rossi and Colin Edwards in Qatar.
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