Hopkins hails Kawasaki's progress

The 24-year-old American, who switched over from Suzuki last winter, told reporters in Qatar that he reckoned that Kawasaki have turned a corner with the new machine after finally getting some running time at the recent night-race test.

"The whole crew and everyone at Kawasaki are really good and I can't say that we have had as much testing as we would have liked," he said. "The Jerez test I didn't really get to do much at all there and then here [Qatar] it was a bit of a struggle with set-up.

"It was pretty painful but towards the end of the test we started to get some good lap times and make some headway. I am back on Bridgestone tyres, so I am really happy about that."

Hopkins admitted that he is still feeling the pain of his injury and that it had proved an obstacle in his physical preparations for the season.

"We had a pretty big get-off at Phillip Island going into Turn One and ended up tearing the abductor muscle on the inside of my groin," he said. "It's a muscle you use quite seriously in MotoGP when we are riding so it has been a bit of a pain getting back to health while trying to keep my fitness up."

Despite the injury to their lead rider, Kawasaki have promised to keep up an accelerated development programme in a bid to close the gap to its rivals.

The team will introduce a new faring for the fourth round of the series at Shanghai on May 4, and has already been using a new seat section and fuel tank in the past two tests.

The Japanese manufacturer is also persisting 'in faith and with belief' with its new-for-2008 screamer engine.

The motor will get another run at Jerez after the Spanish Grand Prix on March 30, when test rider Olivier Jacque will run alongside the race team.

The Frenchman will then return to Jerez again for a further three days running between April 9-11.
Team manager Michael Bartholemy said: "We really have not had enough kilometres with this bike nor the screamer engine so far this year."