Hopkins pleased with first day back

The American was slowest in practice, but less than three seconds off the pace as he reacclimatised to MotoGP after a two-year absence.

"Today was basically just about getting a feel for the bike and getting used to being back in the team," said Hopkins. "I wanted to get comfortable today and I didn't want to go out and do anything stupid - that's for sure.

"Since I was last in MotoGP they've changed to 45-minute sessions so that was a bit different, I would have liked a lot longer on the bike to get a better feeling, but that was not possible.

"In the two sessions we altered some of the electronics, but we haven't changed anything on the chassis because it felt great, there was no need to change the geometry because the base setting was so good."

Hopkins said he had always expected to trail the field today as he got used to the bike.

"Obviously it's where I expected to be position wise, it's a tall order from not riding a MotoGP bike for so long and only having ridden about 150 to 200 laps on a superbike in the last seven months, there was certainly a lot to learn on the first day," he said.

"I am actually quite confident that we can improve a lot tomorrow after I've had the chance to sit back, relax and think about things. I followed some people at the end of the day and I realised there are a lot of places where I need to change my lines, but that's normal really."

His crew chief Tom O'Kane is confident Hopkins will start moving forward tomorrow.

"Our target was for him to come here, learn about the tyres, learn about the bike again and have fun," said O'Kane. "In the afternoon session he closed the gap on the leaders - compared to this morning - and although the wind affected everyone this afternoon and John wasn't 100 per cent comfortable in the conditions, he still did a very good job.

"I think that once John has had a chance to sleep on things tonight, the corners won't come up on him so quickly and he'll be able to react better and find the lines to improve on his times."