Suzuki pair hope to advance in race

"This afternoon's qualifying session resulted in high anticipation for the race but also some disappointment especially for Chris as his qualifying position was not where he deserved to be. He's really flying on the race tyres," said team boss Paul Denning.

"John rescued things at the end to put together a great lap, which all things being equal should have been a front row start, but a mistake and a near-crash put paid to that.

"Middle of the second row is not too bad and I'm sure he'll get a good start and be right up there battling.

"The track looks like it will be very difficult to pass on, but both our guys are pumped up and ready to deliver in full tomorrow."

Vermeulen said traffic had been his main problem in qualifying.

"This afternoon we made some changes with the gearbox and suspension and it felt a lot better," he said.

"I was more comfortable with the circuit and I feel that my race tyre times are very consistent and quite easy to do.

"On the qualifiers it was going well but a rider in front didn't see me and slowed me up a bit.

"Third row is not ideal especially as it will be quite hard to pass around here, so I'll have to sharpen up my elbows and go for it from the off and hopefully get a good result."

Hopkins was pleased with how much the team had achieved given the reduced practice time following Friday's downpour.

"We managed to cram a lot of work into one day today," he said.

"Unfortunately with the two hours back-to-back we didn't really have a lot of opportunities to make many big set-up changes, which we would probably have done if the time had been spaced out more.

"We did make a few alterations and we changed two gearboxes during this morning's session. I think we have made the most of the time we've had and my crew has done a great job."

He accepted responsibility for the error that left him fifth on the grid.

" On the qualifiers I turned my brain off for a bit and went wide and lost some time, but as a whole the bike felt really good and so did the Bridgestone tyres," Hopkins said.

"We've made a few good starts from the second row so we've just got to do that, hang it out at the front and go for that podium."