Kawasaki determined to bounce back

The duo were off the pace all weekend, with Hopkins struggling to get to grips with his set-up after missing Friday practice having aggravated a previous injury, and West tumbling back down the order after his Brno breakthrough.

"This weekend has been frustratingly tough for us," said Hopkins. "Having aggravated the injury to my rib we missed two sessions and basically ran out of time to set the bike up.

"We got a good start to the race, but I was suffering with quite a lot of discomfort from the injury and I just couldn't push as hard as I wanted to. We're struggling with a few problems with the front-end feeling, but again, that's simply down to a lack of track time.

"All of the other Bridgestone riders are on a different specification tyre, and this is something we need time to test as I think it will make a big difference for us.

"I'm having some intense treatment overnight and hopefully we can get plenty of laps under our belt tomorrow to put us in better stead for my home race in Indianapolis."

Team boss Michel Bartholemy admitted that Hopkins' confidence is currently at a low ebb, but he hopes his rider can turn things around at the test.

"After suffering with so many challenges lately, he is quite down," said Bartholemy. "It's always tough coming back from an injury, but he knows that he needs to put that behind him, get his head down and get on with securing the results we know he's capable of.

"I hope he can take advantage of tomorrow's test to catch up on the set-up time he's lost through injury, because a successful test will be just the thing to motivate him for the next race in Indianapolis."