Kawasaki competition manager Michael Bartholemy has warned
Anthony West that he needs to 'justify his place in MotoGP' after the Australian finished 17th and last, one lap down, at Laguna Seca on Sunday.
West had struggled with a lack of feeling from the front of his Ninja ZX-RR all weekend and, despite set-up changes made ahead of morning warm-up, still lacked the confidence to push hard in the race.
The World Supersport race winner has now failed to score points in five of the eleven rounds so far held - in which he has taken a best finish of ninth - and was classified a worrying six places behind temporary team-mate Jamie Hacking at the US GP. Hacking was making his MotoGP debut in place of the injured
John Hopkins.
"This weekend has been a huge disappointment," admitted West. "I had the same problems in the race that I've been having all weekend; I just don't seem to have the confidence in the front-end of the bike, and that meant I couldn't push for a good lap time at all.
"It's frustrating, as Jamie had the same problem at the beginning of the weekend but managed to ride around it. I need to go away from here and get it together during the summer break, so I can come back at Brno and try and score the results I know I'm capable of," he insisted.
Whilst appreciating how disappointed West was, Bartholemy hinted that time may be running out for the Australian, who joined Kawasaki midway through the 2007 season.
"I know Anthony is disappointed with his performance this weekend, but it's difficult to identify exactly where his problem is at the moment," Bartholemy said. "He needs to work hard now to justify his place in
MotoGP.
"The Kawasaki Racing Team is here to secure results, and he needs to convince us he can be a part of that. We will speak to him during the summer break to see if we can find some way of improving his form ahead of the next race."
