American John Hopkins was 10th on his return to Suzuki in MotoGP at Jerez on race day.

Former world number four John Hopkins was satisfied with his top 10 finish in his MotoGP return at Jerez, the American equaling his pre-race expectations as he stood in for Alvaro Bautista at Rizla Suzuki.

Hopkins finished 10th after a consistent performance in Spain, that result coming despite the fact that he hadn’t raced a MotoGP bike since the factory Kawasaki team folded at the end of 2008.

“Well, I finished where I wanted to – I certainly wanted to get into the top 10,” 27-year-old Hopkins reflected. “That was the goal for the whole weekend, but I did wonder if it was going to be a reality when I started on Friday.

“It has been an amazing weekend and I’m so grateful to Rizla Suzuki for giving me this great opportunity, it’s been great and I’ve really enjoyed it, just to see everybody in the GP paddock has been awesome.

“Hopefully in the future you’ll see more of me here, but for now I need to concentrate on the BSB championship and we’ll see what happens.”

With Suzuki regular Alvaro Bautista not expected to return anytime soon following complications to surgery on his broken femur and Hopkins committed to British Superbikes, there’s been no indication who will ride the GSV-R at Estoril in four weeks time.

Japanese test rider Nobuatsu Aoki is a possibility, however Suzuki has said it will announce its plans for the next two races of the season shortly.