Hopkins satisfied after difficult session

Hopkins had to park his primary bike at the trackside and walk back to the pits, but made it in time to resume the session.

"We certainly ran into a few issues during the qualifying session," he said.

"We had a little mechanical problem with my first bike and I wasn't able to get it back to the garage, so I had to come back and get on my spare bike.

"It just goes to show how good the Suzuki is working this year, because the spare bike is almost identical to what we have as the A-bike.

"We then went back out and I got into a quick rhythm straight away. On my first run on the qualifiers I had a bit of a problem with another rider going too slowly on the racing line, so I came in before finishing that lap.

"On the last qualifying tyre I managed to get where I wanted to be - on one of the front two rows.

"It's going to be a long, hot race tomorrow, but the bike and the Bridgestone tyres are working well and we're 100% ready to go racing."

Team boss Paul Denning said that to salvage fifth from such an eventful session proved how well Hopkins and Suzuki are performing at present.

"John's problem with his number one bike in the middle of the session meant that he had to jump onto the spare bike - which he had not tested all weekend," said Denning.

"He did a fantastic job considering he only got in one qualifying run after being badly baulked by an experienced rider - who really should know better.

"His second row start is a good achievement, and if we can qualify well in a session like that then the potential for the future is extremely exciting."