Hopkins targets top five in qualifying

Although the American has qualified 10th and ninth in the first two races of the season, he feels his team have made enough progress to get closer to the top.

That despite the poor conditions today hindering his work during practice.

"This morning the conditions were poor and it was incredibly windy, so we used the session to check our wet set-up, which went well," said Hopkins, 10th fastest today.

"We found a good setting at the Jerez post-race test last week, which offered more machine stability and rear grip, so the dry track time this afternoon was used to improve on that.

"We also had a new chassis to try and this made the bike feel easier to ride, resulting in our times being quite consistent. Overnight, we will analyse the data collected today to build on the work we've done with the new chassis.

"I like it here: it's a late, hard-braking circuit and it's vital we qualify on the first two rows because it's quite difficult to make passes. I'm aiming for a top five grid position, which I think we should be able to achieve."

Teammate Anthony West was also left lamenting the difficult conditions after finishing down in 16th place.

"It's certainly quite difficult here as the track conditions really aren't ideal," he said. "This morning we used our wet setting, which I felt quite comfortable with. In the later session the track was slippery in some places but dry in others.

"With that and the wind, it was difficult to make any real progress with the new chassis we were using, as I couldn't feel how much the wind was affecting the machine stability.

"Estoril isn't a track I go particularly well at, so we have a lot of work to do here. I hope that tomorrow we can have either wet or dry conditions, not a combination of both, so we can make steps forward in set-up."