Recurrent injury hampers Hopkins' test

The Kawasaki rider missed several races in the middle of the season following his qualifying crash at the Dutch track, and had a metal plate inserted in his left ankle. The unusually high mileage notched up in today's test then caused the pain from the injury to flare up again.

"We ride a lot more during testing than we do on a race weekend, and that has caused me some problems today," said Hopkins.

"The left knee and ankle I damaged in the crash at Assen has been really painful. Every time I change gear the tendons in my ankle rub across the metal plate that was inserted to fix the bones, and this causes the ankle to swell up a lot.

"My knee also kept locking out, especially on the left-hand corners, so I'm not in great physical shape."

Team boss Michael Bartholemy said Hopkins' problems were exacerbated by jet leg.

"John was not in the best of condition today; he was short on sleep as a result of jet lag and his Assen injuries were obviously causing him some pain on the bike," he said. "Hopefully, after a good night's sleep tonight, he'll be firing on all cylinders again tomorrow."

Kawasaki and Suzuki have travelled to Phillip Island for three days of testing this week, while most of the MotoGP field will be in action at Jerez prior to the winter testing ban coming into force.

Test rider Olivier Jacque was the fastest of the Kawasaki trio, setting a 1:32.4 on a 2009 development bike, with Marco Melandri and the struggling Hopkins 0.1 and 0.9 seconds slower respectively. Suzuki did not issue times for Chris Vermeulen and Loris Capirossi.