Hopkins not getting carried away

The Californian headed a Kawasaki one-three in the morning practice session, which ended dry, but Hopkins admitted that he is in need of more track time to find a decent set-up.

"This morning started out very wet and we concentrated on our set-up to cope with the conditions out on circuit," he said. "We found something that worked quite well for us, and we gradually worked to a dry setting as the sun came out. On full slicks we found that there is quite a bit of work to do, although we did manage to finish the session at the top of the time sheets.

"If it's going to be dry on race day I hope that tomorrow we have two dry sessions to set the bike up, if not then we'll go back to our original wet setting and work from there."

For Hopkins' team-mate Anthony West, Kawasaki's morning performance marked a welcome return to the top half of the timesheets - which left him confused because it was in the afternoon's wet session that he expected to shine.

"This weekend has got off to a bit of a strange start for me," he said. "The first practice session we went out on track with a full wet set-up and I didn't feel very comfortable on the bike. However, as the track dried out we switched to full slick tyres and I was able to put in some reasonable lap times, finishing third overall. It's usually the wet I'm more comfortable with and today it felt better in the dry!

"In the second wet practice session the bike was struggling to grip, particularly at the first corner and I couldn't get out of the turns well enough without the rear spinning, which cost us a lot of time," he added. "It's also pretty scary aquaplaning a bike at speeds of around 300kph, so I had to change my lines in some places to avoid hitting the water at an angle.

"We need to find better traction and make the bike more stable, especially if it's going to continue raining."