West vows to work on fitness

The Australian was drafted in to the Kawasaki squad from the British Grand Prix and, having learned about the demands of MotoGP, he is well aware of what he needs to improve for next year.

And after an imminent operation to remove a plate and four screws from his left wrist in Germany in the next few days, he has said he will then return to Australia to embark on a major fitness routine.

"After a hectic second half to the season I was intending to chill out for a while when I got home," he said. "But if I've learnt one thing this year it's that you have to be fit to ride in MotoGP. So the plan now is to work on my fitness over the testing ban, with a few hundred laps on the motocross bike."

West has said he is encouraged by the progress made in testing at Jerez this week, which he thinks has put him in good stead for the next test at Sepang in early January.

"While the laptimes haven't been what I was hoping for, we've covered a lot of ground during the three days here at Jerez," he explained.

"We've tried a whole range of different settings, switching from one extreme to the other, to give us a better understanding of the effect these changes have on the bike.

"The result is that both my new crew chief, Juan Martinez, and myself will head to the next test in Sepang with a much better understanding of how the bike works and what combination of settings best suits my riding style."