Kawasaki frustrated by qualifying slump

John Hopkins had been fastest of all in Friday's first session, while his beleaguered teammate Anthony West had also shown much better speed than he had so far this season.

But the weather cleared for qualifying, and on the dry track Hopkins could only manage 14th place, while West was 1.2 seconds slower and last of all.

"Today has felt like an uphill struggle for us," Hopkins said. "We had a few problems transitioning to a dry set-up in this morning's practice session, after the two wet sessions yesterday.

"But we persisted on refining the set-up, as well as working closely with Bridgestone to find a suitable tyre combination for the race. In qualifying it just didn't come together for us, which has left us with a less than ideal grid position. It's going to be incredibly important to get a good start in the race if I'm to claw back some points tomorrow."

West felt he had also been more competitive in the dry sections of practice, so was downcast after falling to the back row again.

"Yesterday felt good in the dry and to end up at the back of the grid after today's qualifying is very frustrating," he said. "We have been trying many different ideas to improve the rear-traction of the machine, as I have been struggling to get out of the corners at previous rounds.

"This track is particularly tricky, especially the downhill, off-camber sections, but today we found ourselves with no front-end feeling and I just couldn't push the bike into the turns."