Hopkins fights pain to shine in Qatar

The Rizla Suzuki rider, still suffering the after effects from a heavy crash last month during testing, posted a promising fourth fastest time of the day in the second practice session at the Losail circuit.

Hopkins broke a toe in his right foot after crashing heavily during testing in Qatar last month.

"We're pretty happy with today. The pain level in my hand has been quite high so my pain threshold has had to withstand that all day," said Hopkins.

"I've been working hard with the MotoGP clinic and my trainer Johnny Louch, and Team Physio Dean Miller, have been doing a tremendous job getting me back to fitness."

Hopkins was also pleased with the performance of the latest generation of Bridgestone rubber, after having to use only two rear tyres throughout the whole day.

"Bridgestone has also done an exceptional job here this week by bringing some really good tyres, they have stepped it up massively from what we had here at the test," he added.

"I think this is the first time in my career that I have only used two rear tyres in a whole day!

"I ran one for this morning session and another for the whole of the afternoon and set my fastest laptime on the last lap in both cases. We still have a couple more things to do to the bike tomorrow but we will be ready for qualifying and I'll be doing every thing I can to bring the pain in my hand down.

"Then we'll be ready to go racing when Saturday comes."

Teammate Chris Vermeulen posted the 12th fastest time of the day after having to overcome a brake problem in the morning session.

"We were well prepared for this track this morning as we were only here a couple of weeks ago," said Vermeulen. "We didn't have a lot of things to test so the biggest issue was tyre choice - now that we have a limited amount it's important to pick the right ones.

"In the morning I had a bit of a brake issue on both bikes and it cost us a bit of time getting it sorted. This afternoon we managed to get it all sorted and I was able to get into more of a rhythm.

"We have found a good direction with the bike and the tyres and we have some good ideas of things to try tomorrow."