Suzuki hoped for more than fourth

John Hopkins set the fastest lap of the race and stayed with the lead battle for the first half of the race before falling away in fourth, while teammate Chris Vermeulen came through from 11th on the grid to seventh.

"I've got to that point where I am now disappointed not to be on the podium, obviously I'm happy to be in the top five but I want more," Hopkins admitted.

"It was a tough race and I held in there with the first three for as long as I could, but with about eight laps to go I started to lose a bit of pace and as hard as I tried I was losing that little bit more each lap - so I had to settle for fourth place.

"We're really happy with the Suzuki and Bridgestone tyre package this season and the tyres are working a lot better than they did last year - so no complaints there at all.

"Now we have a couple of days testing here and I am looking forward to bettering my times and then moving on to the next two tracks that I think will really suit the GSV-R800."

Team manager Paul Denning shared Hopkins' mixed feelings.

"As team manager it is not easy to say exactly how I feel after this race," he said.

"Both the guys rode very well, John set the fastest lap, and fourth and seventh place is a good result at this circuit for the whole team and for Bridgestone. It is a measure of how our expectations have risen that both John and Chris want to finish higher.

"But we have no right to complain - for Chris to come from right down the field and almost grab sixth on the final lap, and for John to race so hard against the top three in the championship can't be bad.

"When the combination works to our advantage, I think we now have the bike, rider and tyre package to win one of these things in the dry."