Biaggi highlights Hopkins threat
Added on Friday, April 3rd, 2009 by Carole Nash Editor
Biaggi highlights Hopkins threat
Max Biaggi believes that new World Superbikes entrant John Hopkins will offer a stern challenge this season, stating this weekend in Valencia.
Hopkins has joined up with the Stiggy Honda privateer team for the 2009 championship after being cut adrift by Kawasaki’s withdrawal from MotoGP earlier in the year and Biaggi believes that a rider of his calibre is certainly worthy of challenging with the best.
Speaking to the Spanish media, Biaggi said: “Without a doubt he will be in the top group of riders. He has a good motorcycle which we have seen in the hands of Haslam in the first two rounds of the championship already.
“I don’t know if he has prepared enough to be able to make it to the podium, the level of the riders who will fight for the top three places is very high but he has the advantage of knowing Valencia very well and that’s going to really help him this weekend.”
Biaggi also gave a glowing appraisal of his new Aprilia RSV4 which, after a tough start in Australia, put in some excellent performances in Qatar with the Italian securing two third place finishes and teammate Shinya Nakano also finishing in the top four in race one.
The most notable feature of the Aprilia, with the manufacturer also making its WSB debut, has been its speed from a standing start and Biaggi revealed that low-down power has been very much at the forefront of the team’s thinking.
“The way to be fast in WSB now is to have very strong lowdown power,” he added. “Top end is not so important and it is necessary to understand that to appreciate how the Ducati and Yamaha are working well. We have good low delivery of the power and we will get better throughout the season too.”
