John Hopkins's Test with Rizla Suzuki Proves to be Literally Little More than a PR Stunt

It seemed John Hopkins’s return to MotoGP was well underway, as reports earlier this year said the Anglo-American would be testing at MotoGP’s last pre-season test being held at Qatar this week; however Hopper’s stint on the GSV-R seems to have been relegated to merely doing some laps on the Suzuki MotoGP bike as part of a PR video campaign for the Rizla squad.

Hopper’s test originally was supposed to assess the former-MotoGP rider’s ability to apex a GP machine, and give Paul Denning’s squad an option should Alvaro Bautista become injured in the 2011 season. After Saturday’s filming though, Hopper’s return seems less likely, but the now British Superbike rider remains hopeful.

“It’s really good to have been given this opportunity and it’s just been great to be here!” said Hopkins. “It feels really cool to be back out and riding on a GP bike, even if it was just for filming it was still a lot of fun. I did start to get a decent feeling on the bike and it still feels awesome, even with the minimal amount of laps we were doing.”

“It would be great to race the Suzuki in a MotoGP event, so hopefully I can have some success in BSB and get the chance to go for it in a Grand Prix again sometime in the future,” continued the Anglo-American. “My ultimate goal is to get back to MotoGP, but for now my full focus is on doing the best I can in the British Superbike championship with the Samsung Crescent team. I’ve really enjoyed today and I am very grateful to Rizla Suzuki for giving me the chance to be here – and thanks to Álvaro for letting me use one of his Rizla bikes.”