Hopkins still suffering from back injury

The Kawasaki rider was 11th fastest on the opening day of practice for the British Grand Prix and, although happy with his bike, confessed it was hard to ride as he wished to because of his back.

"This circuit is quite demanding and it's pretty tough on my back injury," said the Anglo-American. "I'm having trouble lifting my leg and shifting through the gears in the tight, quick changes of direction. It's a fight, but we're working through it and the bike feels really good.

"We've got a few areas to improve on the chassis, but the post-race test at Catalunya has definitely proven positive. We ran through different tyre options today to see what would be a good race tyre in the dry, as the weather is quite unpredictable and we're not sure what the conditions will be like tomorrow.

"We have a few changes to make to the machine overnight, but I'm confident we can step it up a gear and we'll be working hard to qualify well here."

Hopkins's positive feelings about the bike have been mirrored by teammate Anthony West, who feels he has made a breakthrough in getting to grips with the machine.

"Finally I can say that we've managed to make a real step forward with the rear traction problems we have suffered with for so long," said West, who finished just one place behind Hopkins today.

"The recent test in Japan was positive and this has been proven on the track today, as we're not so far off the pace. The setting we have found does mean the bike now wheelies more, however this is much easier to deal with than not being able to exit the turns.

"We still need to improve the first part of corner exit, but the rear is gripping much better and driving forward out of the turns rather than spinning so much, which means it feels a lot more controllable and stable than previously.

"I hope that this improvement can be reflected on qualifying rubber tomorrow, and although there is still a lot of work to do, I feel confident that we are heading in the right direction."