Kawasaki thrilled with Hopkins' result

Hopkins rose from 10th on the grid to hold a comfortable fifth by half-distance, and then managed to resist a closing Casey Stoner in the final laps.

"I'm really pleased as my aim was for a top five finish today," said Hopkins. "I got a really good start and the first lap was quite frantic as I went around the outside of a few riders, before settling into a rhythm with the leading pack.

"Around halfway, the grip level dropped but I raced as hard as possible as Casey Stoner was closing the gap between us.

"Our main area to improve on is qualifying, as we keep giving ourselves a lot of work to do in the race by having a poor grid position."

Team boss Michael Bartholemy praised Hopkins' performance.

"To finish fifth here is superb as Estoril is not a place we've been particularly strong at in the past," he said.

"John rode a fantastic race. Now I hope we can continue to move forward at the next race, where the track is more suited to our Ninja ZX-RR and our Bridgestone tyres."

But Bartholemy was concerned by Anthony West's performance, as the Australian finished last on the road, one minute behind teammate Hopkins.

"I had hoped for a better result from Anthony," Bartholemy admitted. "Normally he's able to turn it on in the race and improve on both his practice and qualifying performance, but it just didn't happen for him today.

"We need to find the root cause of his problems, and then come up with a solution, because the current situation isn't good for him and it isn't good for Kawasaki."

West said he was mystified by his lack of pace.

"It would be easy to say I'm disappointed but, if I'm completely honest, the main feeling is one of intense frustration," he said.

"I just can't seem to get the bike to work for me; all weekend it's felt nervous and it's constantly moving around. I can ride round the problems on the straights and into the turns but I'm losing massive amounts of time on the exit, where the bike feels like it's going to throw me off if I so much as touch the throttle.

"John doesn't seem to have the same problem, which just makes it doubly frustrating. We'll aim to find a solution during testing tomorrow, because I'm not here to run around at the back of the field."