Suzuki riders hopeful of better race

John Hopkins missed a top ten starting position for the first time this season, after he failed to get the best out of the qualifying tyres. "The weekend has been going pretty well for us and the free practices were all good. We've worked hard with Bridgestone to get the best possible set-up that we can for tomorrow," said Hopkins.

"This afternoon we ran into a couple of problems with the qualifying tyres so we had to do the best we could. We were comfortable on the race tyres, but it was so warm I tried to conserve a bit of energy for the qualifiers at the end of the practice.

"On my fastest lap I made a mistake on the last turn that cost a couple of tenths, if that hadn't have happened I'm sure we'd have been a couple of rows higher up the grid.

"It's no different than the last couple of races though, I've got to go out and get a good start and not let anyone get away, because I know I can run with the pace of anybody!"

His Japanese teammate Kousuke Akiyoshi was equally buoyant about his own race prospects: "My lap times have improved over the day and I am sure I can run in the top-10 tomorrow.

"I am really enjoying the weekend although I would have liked to have been higher up the grid. I have not tested many qualifiers on the 800 and was not sure how fast I could go - maybe I could have gone quicker!"

However Chris Vermeulen's struggle continued, despite finding more pace on race rubber. Like Hopkins, he struggled with the qualifying tyres and will start seventeenth.

"The whole weekend hasn't been very good so far," said the Australian. "We've made a lot of progress on race tyres today and it felt a lot more consistent and at one point I was inside the top-10 and the Bridgestone tyres were working really well.

"Unfortunately on the qualifiers I couldn't get any more grip than I did on the race tyres so it wasn't easy to go any quicker, and that is something we're going to have to work on.

"It sucks starting from so far back, but I can't change that now, I just have to go out there and do the best I can and try to get as many points as possible."