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Kawasaki's John Hopkins and Anthony West remain optimistic ahead of tomorrow's Australian Grand Prix, despite finishing today's qualifying in 16th and 18th positions after both suffered with cornering difficulties aboard their Ninja ZX-RR race machines.

Hopkins made a host of set-up changes ahead of the final free practice this morning, but like many other of the riders out on track in the early session, the Kawasaki pilot was caught out on cold tyres and crashed without injury after losing the front of his Ninja ZX-RR.

Undeterred, Hopkins completed 25 laps in this afternoon's qualifying stint to continue improving the balance of his machine, to aid cornering around the Australian track. The 25-year-old Anglo-American was struggling particularly at the notorious final corner, through which riders must carry maximum speed onto the start-finish straight.

Despite qualifying in 16th place on the grid, Hopkins and his crew have some ideas on how to find a more workable set-up for his machine for the 27-lap race, and intend to make further changes in tomorrow's warm-up session.

West also endured a difficult day at the Phillip Island circuit, as he qualified in 18th position for his home Grand Prix. The 27-year-old Australian has found it difficult to gain feedback from his race machine, resulting in a lack of traction that has hindered his speed out of the turns. West made various set-up changes, which offered him an improved front-end feeling, but the Kawasaki pilot was still unable to find the grip level in the rear of his machine, both on race and qualifying rubber. Although frustrated, West is hoping that overnight he, along with his crew, can make significant improvements for tomorrow's race.

John Hopkins
"Our ultimate goal today was to find a more workable setting, particularly in the balance of the machine, as we were pushing the front going into the turns, and losing the rear on the way out. We have been trying to find a better direction and although we've made some improvements, they weren't significant enough to give us a good lap time. We had a small crash this morning when I lost the front going into Honda Corner, because in the cold conditions we just didn't have enough heat in the tyre. We need to find better turning and stability on the machine to make use of the grip available. Out of the whole lap I'm losing a lot of time at the final turn, and this is definitely the main area that needs improvement for tomorrow."