John Hopkins followed up a best-yet fifth place for Kawasaki in Sunday's Portuguese Grand Prix, with a promising test session back at Estoril on Monday - when he made significant progress with the rear of his ZX-RR.
The 24-year-old improved his race pace using a new specification rear tyre and also refined the set-up of a new chassis, introduced to the racetrack for the first time in Friday's practice session.
Hopkins left Portugal with an impressive fourth fastest lap time, using a qualifying tyre, after lapping just 0.4secs from fastest man
Dani Pedrosa. All of which was perfect preparation for Shanghai on May 4, where Hopkins scored his first
MotoGP podium one year ago as a Suzuki rider.
"Today has been useful as we've made another step forward with our race set-up," said John. "We worked closely with
Bridgestone to test a lot of rear tyre options, one of which worked particularly well for us. I hope that they will be able to provide us with this specification for Shanghai as I really feel it will make a big difference to our race pace.
"We've also made some alterations to the chassis, which has improved the rear traction of the machine. Every time I get on board the Kawasaki it seems to get better and better, so I hope we can achieve another great result at the next round," he added.
After finishing 16th and last in the race, team-mate
Anthony West was determined to make progress on Monday, but was only partially satisfied.
