Improved Kawasaki target top ten

John Hopkins took 10th on the grid - his best qualifying result since taking third on the Brno grid - with his teammate Anthony West 13th after topping morning practice.

Hopkins felt he could have done better still had qualifying been dry throughout, as morning rain meant that the riders could not use slicks until the closing minutes.

"I switched to slicks quite early, but it was quite tricky dodging the damp patches and the grip was pretty unpredictable," he said.

"My first qualifier induced some chatter in the bike, but my second qualifying run was a lot better.

"Unfortunately, because of the track conditions at the start, we ran out of time to stick another qualifier on the bike. I'm pretty confident I could have improved my grid position if we'd had the chance to use the last soft tyre, but that's the way it is sometimes and it was the same for everyone.

"The improvements we made this morning to our dry set-up mean we're pretty much on the pace, so a top ten finish is definitely on the cards for tomorrow."

West reckoned his bike was still not set up correctly for qualifying, so was pleasantly surprised to be as high as 13th.

"We didn't manage to make any big improvements to our set-up this morning, so launching the bike out of the turns was still a problem during qualifying this afternoon," he said.

"At the start of the session, with the track completely wet, everyone was having the same problem, but as the track started to dry out it was just me who was sideways out of the corners In the end I could only do what I did in Australia and just open the throttle and hang on. I was pretty close to John at the finish, so it seems it's not such a bad approach.

"It's nice to be off the back row of the grid and I think a top ten finish tomorrow is a distinct possibility."

The team's technical manager Naoya Kaneko reckons Kawasaki are set for a strong race whatever the weather brings.

"We know we have good wet settings, and the changes we made to our dry set-up this morning improved things, so I'm pretty confident that both riders will finish tomorrow in the top ten regardless of the weather conditions," he said.