Pleased West confident for the race

The Kawasaki rider, whose previous best this year was a lowly 15th slot on the grid, took advantage of his skills in wet conditions to qualify seventh and reckons he could have done better yet with a different tyre at the end.

"It's great to be back in the top ten and fighting for decent positions," said the Australian.

"The bike is working well and we have a good pace in both the wet and dry. The track was very slippery and we were top three for a lot of the session, but we weren't allocated a soft tyre for my final run, which meant some of the other riders had an advantage."

A confident West hopes he can also improve on his season's best finishing position, which at the moment is a disappointing twelfth.

"I'm feeling confident for tomorrow," he said. "We're not going to make many major changes to the machine, although there are some areas in the turns where we need to improve the rear traction of the bike.

"I am pleased with how things are going, as we're moving forwards, and I hope we can finally gain a strong result in the race."