Kawasaki 'now showing full potential'

The French rider led most of this afternoon's practice session at Assen and ended the day second only to championship leader Casey Stoner.

"I think it's only now that he's recovered from his crash at Le Mans that we can see what the bike can do," said Kaneko.

"Also, the Kawasaki seems well suited to this circuit: last year we had a good race with (Shinya) Nakano and things seem to be similar now. I'm feeling optimistic for qualifying tomorrow."

De Puniet said his speed was a genuine indicator of Kawasaki's race potential, rather than a one-off fast practice lap.

"This afternoon, we made some improvements to the front and rear suspension, plus worked on our tyre choices for the race, and it all worked very well," he said.

"The bike felt right, I managed good lap times and I'm in second behind the leader of the championship.

"I know he beat me, even though I was at the front for most of the practice session, but it was more important today for me to find a good set-up and I have. It's really positive and I feel like we're moving in the right direction."

His teammate Anthony West ended the day only 17th after suffering a low-side at Ruskenhoek in the afternoon. He was unhurt and was able to rejoin the session on his spare bike.

"I was feeling good until I crashed; everything felt right and the changes we'd made this morning were working really well," West said.

"It was strange because I was already in the corner, just ready to open the gas, but then I lost the front and went down. I don't know why: perhaps the tyre wasn't warm enough as I'd only done one lap on it. Maybe I need to warm them up a bit more on the left hand side.

"So yeah, obviously I'm not very happy but at least the set-up we found was good."