Kawasaki delighted with practice form

De Puniet ended up fourth quickest on combined practice times, despite sitting out half of the first session to rest his injured knee, with West topping the timesheets on several occasions before taking fifth in the afternoon, and seventh in the combined list.

"Both riders did a good job to set up the machine today for a wet race but we must wait and see what happens tomorrow as we haven't got a dry set-up," said Kawasaki's technical manager Naoya Kaneko.

"We've adjusted the throttle to be more precise and gentle and sorted out the engine mapping and tyres.

"We've been very impressed with Anthony on his first time out. He was fast and really consistent and when he came in, he made good progress improving the set up.

"As for Randy, we know he mustn't stress his knee too much but we'll see how he'll cope. It's all good. We're really happy."

West was pleased with how quickly he had settled into the team on his return to MotoGP.

"At the moment, I'm really happy. I'm excited to be here and today was a good day," he said.

"I was worried about the rain this morning but it's turned out well and I like working with this team: they seem to understand what I want.

"We've been trying things out and playing around, seeing what I like and what I don't like. A lot of testing in a short time."