American John Hopkins steals pole position in closing seconds with dramatic final lap at Oulton Park British Superbike Championship
California native John Hopkins provided a remarkable finish to qualifying for the second Oulton Park round of the British Superbike Championship when the Samsung Crescent Suzuki rider snatched pole position away from Swan Yamaha’s Tommy Hill on his final lap after time had expired. After failing to improve his lap time during the third and final Superpole-style qualifying session, Hopkins dug deep and managed to put in a spectacular lap that undercut Hill’s quickest lap by more than tenth of a second. Hill thought that he’d had pole position in the bag after his pit crew gave him the “P1” signal when he crossed the line for his last lap, only to be told as he made his way to the qualifying parc ferme that Hopkins had swiped it away on his final lap. "I really wanted the pole position this afternoon and I thought I might have had it,” said Hill. “I did two 1:35.2 laps with a bit of a gap and I thought I had it in the bag. On my last lap I had ‘P1’ on my board as I crossed the line with the checkered flag and when I came in I was second, but fair play to John (Hopkins).”
Photo Gallery: Hopkins on pole for Oulton Park BSB - Sport Rider Magazine
No comments:
Post a Comment