Hopkins vows to carry on testing tomorrow

The Kawasaki Racing rider is still suffering pain from the groin injury he picked up in a testing crash at Phillip Island, and that has limited the amount of running he has been able to do so far in Spain.

However, being still able to make progress with electronic systems, he reckons that if it is dry tomorrow then he will try and do some more running.

"Conditions during the timed session this afternoon were far from ideal when you're carrying an injury, which is why I opted to sit it out," said Hopkins, who joined fellow injured rider Dani Pedrosa in watching the session from the sidelines.

"My priority has to be regaining full fitness for the first race, and I didn't want to risk aggravating the injury just to try and win a car I don't need.

"I tested what I needed to test this morning and I think we made some progress with changes to the electronics and traction control systems to suit my personal preferences. I will ride tomorrow, depending on the weather, but it is still going to be quite limited due to the pain I still have from the Phillip Island injury."

Teammate Anthony West gave Kawasaki some encouragement with the fourth fastest time, but he was still not completely happy with how the day had gone.

"There are definitely some areas for improvement, and hopefully we will get some dry test time tomorrow to use the data we have collected, so we can leave here with a clear progression plan prior to the Qatar test," said the Australian.