John Hopkins set the fastest time in Saturday morning's free practice session for the French MotoGP. The American Suzuki man clocked 1:35.128, six hundredths of a second faster than Honda's Toni Elias.
In an excellent session for the Rizla Suzuki team, Hopkins also completed more laps than anyone else - 32 - although his team-mate Chris Vermeulen struggled to 13th place.
Despite a cool track temperature of 18°C, most riders ran with a qualifying set-up, meaning all but two set their fastest time of the race weekend.
Championship leader Casey Stoner was third quickest on the Ducati, ahead of Makoto Tamada and Colin Edwards. Randy De Puniet was also within a quarter of a second of Hopkins.
However, the struggles of champion Nicky Hayden continued, with the Repsol Honda man just seventh.
However, he was still faster than Valentino Rossi who desperately needs a positive result to close the points gap on Stoner, but looks set for a testing weekend.
EuroSport
Subject: Hopkins impresses 
Sat May 19, 2007 9:55 pm