Suzuki disappointed by 'dismal' positions

Both riders reported a simple lack of pace from their bikes.

"That was an awful session and probably the worst for the team all season, it was ridiculous," said Hopkins.

"We did make some improvements this afternoon with the dry setting but we are still nowhere near close to what we want. I am very unhappy with the qualifying position, but I do have high hopes for the race as I know we can get a better set-up than we've had today."

Vermeulen felt that the constant changes in weather conditions during practice had left the team unable to perfect a set-up.

"We had the weather against us again today and the first session was a bit wet so we couldn't really concentrate on what we wanted to get done," he said.

"We did manage to get the bike set-up for both types of conditions and my guys all did a great job. We have improved the bike a long way today and have also consistently improved lap times.

"We still have a long way to go and we especially need to concentrate on improving the corner speed and rear tyre durability. I'm sure we'll be a bit better for tomorrow and hope we'll get a dry warm-up to test those things out.

"I am far from happy with where I qualified and it gives me a lot of work to do right from the start, but I'm up for it and I'll be giving it everything I've got at my home GP."

Team boss Paul Denning admitted that Suzuki had not moved forward from pre-season testing at Phillip Island.

"A dismal qualifying result today," he said. "We had high hopes coming to this event that we would be able to take a good step in our performance here compared to our winter test, but that has just not been the case.

"Both the guys have made decent advancements today but the competition has moved away at the same rate so we are really back where we started from.

"Long term there are a number of factors we need to look at to try to understand our relative lack of performance at this circuit, but short-term the most important thing we can do right now is to maximise what we have in the garage right now, make sure the riders are ready to give 100 percent and try to salvage a decent result from what has been a difficult weekend."