American John Hopkins will race for Rizla Suzuki at Jerez's second round of MotoGP.

Rizla Suzuki has announced that it will not be able to replace the injured Álvaro Bautista in Qatar MotoGP season opener, despite exhausting all possible scenarios to get the Rizla Suzuki GSV-R on the grid.

The two riders most likely to replace Bautista – who broke his femur yesterday – are both unavailable, with John Hopkins in America and unable to get to Qatar in time and Nobuatsu Aoki in Japan where travel is very difficult due the terrible earthquake and tsunami tragedy that struck his country last week.

The Suzuki management also made tentative approaches to several Moto2 riders that have MotoGP experience, but none of these riders were available due to commitments to their respective teams for the first race of the season.

Aussie Anthony West was amongst those who were approached by Suzuki for the season opener.

“We really wanted to find a suitable rider and have the Rizla Suzuki on the grid tomorrow but the logistics for John or Nobu simply didn’t allow it,” team manager Paul Denning said.

“Also, the Moto2 teams who have riders with MotoGP experience, that we discussed the option with, were understandably reluctant to release a rider at the first round of the championship.”

It’s now been confirmed that 2007 MotoGP number four Hopkins will join the team for the next round of the season at Jerez in Spain as a replacement for Bautista while the Spaniard continues on his road to recovery.

“John isn’t happy with what happened to Álvaro, but I know he will do a solid job for us in Jerez, and we are hoping to arrange a shakedown test beforehand,” Denning added.

“Álvaro’s comeback timing isn’t clear, and John has BSB commitments that clash with Estoril and Le Mans, so we need to wait a while before any decisions for those races are made.”

Bautista is comfortable in hospital following the surgery to pin his left femur this morning, he plans to return to Spain early next week to begin his recuperation with a view to being back in MotoGP as soon as possible.