West pleased with setup breakthrough

Although the Australian ended the final day of the official MotoGP test at Jerez in Spain in 12th position, West was optimistic that he had made progress in getting the front end of the Ninja ZX-RR more to his taste.

"We've mainly worked on the handling and the steering of the bike today," said West. "We've made a big step forward in the front-end setup and I feel a lot more confident, although there is still room for further improvement.

"We have also tested some qualifying tyres from Bridgestone that I have never used before and the results were promising. I am sure that given more time using them we could have gone even faster.

"We finished off the test with a 10-lap run to see what the tyre performance is like towards the middle of race distance and we found more consistency than with the previous tyres we have used. We now have a plan to fine-tune the setup with what we have learned here in Jerez and I will return home to continue with my training programme before heading to the last pre-season test in Qatar."

Teammate John Hopkins was unable to complete as many laps as West, due to the continued pain he is suffering in his groin as a result of the injury he picked up in his Phillip Island testing crash.

However, he is hopeful that treatment in the United States will ensure he is back to full fitness in time for the season-opener in Qatar.

"Today we used the dry track time to warm up the clutch and try some practice starts, as we don't have much time to do this before the first race," explained Hopkins.

"Riding in the rain yesterday took its toll on my injury and today I have definitely felt the effects. With our focus firmly on the first race, we decided it wasn't necessary to go out on circuit this afternoon.

"I am flying home tomorrow to immediately have as much therapy and ultra-sound treatment as possible to maximise my recovery."