Hopkins: Bridgestone will be stronger

Hopkins split the Michelin-shod Yamahas of Valentino Rossi and Colin Edwards on the front row in Shanghai, but does not expect the French rubber to show similar pace in the race.

"Right now Bridgestone's working really, really hard with the race tyres, they're really starting to clean up with the race tyres and make huge improvements," said Hopkins.

"I'm really happy with everything they've got going on. The other manufacturer have really stepped it up with the qualifying tyres this year, but Bridgestone have done the same with the race tyres and that's the most important thing.

"The main objective today on the qualifying tyres was just to get on the first two rows and get a decent position for the start tomorrow."

Although Hopkins is the leading Bridgestone runner on the grid, he admitted that he will be hard-pressed to fend off the powerful Bridgestone-shod Ducatis in the race.

"I can see it being a big problem at the front of the pack," said Hopkins.

"They're going to be very fast and they're going to make some passes down the back straightaway without a doubt.

"They could really affect the lap times tomorrow. We've got to stay at the front end of that pack, for sure."

Hopkins hopes that Suzuki can close the straightline speed gap when they introduce a new engine for the French Grand Prix in a fortnight. He tested the engine following the Istanbul race, and is confident that it will move the team forward.

"Hopefully we're going to get it for Le Mans," said Hopkins.

"We tested it in Turkey and it did make big improvements to the bike and getting out of corners.

"We wish we would have had it here because we would have made big steps, but we're hopeful for Le Mans and Suzuki's working really hard to produce the motor as soon as possible."