Hopkins frustrated with tenth

The American said he had the pace to challenge riders further up the order, but got involved in an almost race-long battle with James Toseland for tenth place, which finally resolved in Hopkins' favour for good with a pass on the last lap.

"The start is always a bit hectic here because the first few turns are quite tight, so we just got our head down and settled into a rhythm. We caught up with James Toseland and I tried everything to get around him, but he just had a little bit more acceleration out of the turns than us," explained Hopkins.

"It was quite frustrating because on the brakes and mid-corner we were much quicker, so we passed each other on many occasions. We were side by side for a lot of the time so it was a big battle and it came down to the final lap where I made a pass that stuck at turn two.

"We managed to achieve tenth, but really I felt we were capable of a top five finish because we were lapping at the same pace as riders much further up the field."

It was another disappointing race for Anthony West, who finished fifteenth after trouble with the brakes on his bike sent him off the track during the race.

"At the moment it seems that, if it wasn't for bad luck we wouldn't have any luck at all. Early on in the race my front brake lever was coming all the way back to the bar, and the bike just wasn't stopping.

"Almost every lap I had to use the brake span adjuster to move the lever further out, but two corners later it would be back to the bar again. We don't know yet what the problem was, but eventually I just ran out of brakes at the end of the straight and ended up taking a trip through the gravel trap."

Despite his riders' troubles, Kawasaki competition manager Michael Bartholemy was positive about the team's weekend, with the bike showing improved performance even if the end result wasn't quite what they had hoped for.

"This weekend has been quite positive for us, as we've been in, or close to, the top ten for most of the sessions, which is an improvement on the last few races.

"John has made some steps forward in set-up, and he has more confidence on the bike. He was trying hard to get past Toseland in the race, but it seems we need to improve the machine's corner exit capabilities, as this would certainly have helped his campaign today.

"Anthony suffered with some problems, but he made a good start to the race and he also seemed to have felt more comfortable on the bike during yesterday. I hope we can continue with the progress he's made here, especially for his home round next weekend in Australia."