Estoril Testing
FURTHER IMPROVEMENTS FOR KAWASAKI
Following a superb fifth place finish for John Hopkins yesterday
at Estoril, the Kawasaki Racing Team concluded today's post-race
test with more positive results. Both Hopkins and Anthony
West improved on their race lap times, whilst making further
set-up enhancements to their Ninja ZX-RR machines.
Having achieved his best result so far for Kawasaki yesterday,
Hopkins worked closely with Bridgestone to evaluate a series
of rear tyre options. The 24-year-old improved his race pace
around the 4.182km circuit using a new specification rear
tyre, which he felt made a big difference to the handling
of his machine.
Hopkins also refined the set-up of the chassis that was introduced
to the racetrack for the first time in Friday's practice session,
and concluded his test with a few practice starts. The Anglo-American
is confident of a good result at the next round in China,
where he achieved his first MotoGP podium last year.
West returned to the track today determined to improve his
pace after his disappointment with yesterday's race result.
The Australian rider and his crew made some alterations to
his machine's base setting and this was successful in helping
the 26-year-old to regain his feeling for the bike.
West also tested a new rear tyre option that somewhat improved
the manoeuvrability of his Kawasaki, as it provided a much
smoother corner entry and more rear traction, which boosted
the Australian's confidence in both himself and his Ninja
ZX-RR after such a difficult weekend.
After completing 96 laps of the Estoril circuit today West
now heads to America to continue his training ahead of round
four of the MotoGP championship, which takes place at the
Shanghai circuit in just over two weeks time.
John Hopkins
#21: 62 Laps - 1:36.872
"Today has been useful as we've made another step forward
with our race set-up. 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."
Anthony West
#13: 96 Laps - 1:39.065
"Following yesterday's result, I was keen to get out
on the bike today to try and improve our lap times. We altered
some of the machine's base settings and this enabled me to
lap more consistently than during the race weekend. Although
the times weren't a vast improvement, I felt that I could
be much smoother through the turns and I had more confidence
to push harder, even after 17 or so laps. Bridgestone gave
us two tyre options to test, one of which felt particularly
good and I hope we'll be able to use this in Shanghai. The
next round should be much more suited to the Kawasaki, and
I really want to improve my results there."
Naoya Kaneko
Kawasaki Technical Manager
"In today's test we ran through a lot of tyre options
supplied by Bridgestone. This proved positive, with both riders
finding improvements with a race tyre specification. With
John's machine we tested various chassis, clutch and electronic
components. All of these items have shown good results, but
some of the components need developing further before being
used in a race situation. With Anthony we concentrated on
his base set-up, as he never really felt comfortable on the
bike during the race weekend. Our aim was to give him more
confidence on the bike and we certainly made a step forward
with this, with Anthony's lap times improving today. We leave
this event with some new parts for Shanghai and many plus
points from the test, so I am happy overall."
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