Suzuki consoles 'gutted' Hopkins.

Team Suzuki were left trying to console star rider John Hopkins after the hard charging Anglo-American was left 'gutted' by his eleventh place qualifying position for Sunday's Catalan Grand Prix.

But, despite behind left on the fourth row, Hopper - whom Britain's The Times newspaper reports burnt his nose last weekend at Mugello "after deciding it would be a hoot to pour fuel in a field and dance inside a ring of fire"! - was only 0.954secs behind home favourite and pole-setter Sete Gibernau and just 0.3secs away from a second row start.

"I'm gutted to be 11th. We've been in the top-ten all weekend and I don't feel that I got the best out of the bike," sighed John. "The team are trying to console me by saying if I was a fraction of a second quicker I would be on the second row, but I need to get good qualifying positions to get away with the front-runners early on.

"The GSV-R has improved this weekend, that's another step in the right direction. We still need more but it's good to see the Factory understands the way we need to go," he added. "I'll now put this qualifying behind me and get on the bike tomorrow and give it 100 per-cent for the race - as I always do."

Meanwhile, team-mate Kenny Roberts Jr will start two places further back and stated that more improvements from the Factory were needed for the GSV-R to make an impact.

"I tried everything I could. I'd liked to have been a bit quicker but as ever the qualifying tyre situation doesn't really tell the race story," he said. "The Factory has made a good step this weekend with the new engine parts. But we need that step to be made significantly larger in order to get the best out of the GSV-R and compete on level terms."

Team manager Paul Denning underlined that, despite the grid positions, both riders and their respective pit crews had reason to be proud.

"A great effort again by both the guys and to see them in 11th and 13th places really doesn't do them or their crews' justice for the amount of work they've put in," said Paul.

"John got into some traffic on his final qualifying run and aborted the lap, but unfortunately there wasn't enough time to put in another tyre before the end of the session. So we don't know what might have been. He's very disappointed but as a Team we are not disappointed in him for his efforts.

"Kenny is not a huge gap away from John on qualifiers. He's been working hard on set-up and is consistently in the low 44s on race tyres. I hope he will get a decent improvement in tomorrow's race after the disappointment in Mugello," concluded the Brit.