Kawasaki's John Hopkins and Anthony West were disappointed to finish today's free practice at Jerez in 14th and 17th place respectively, after encountering rear traction problems during the two hour-long sessions.
Having missed out on the opportunity for extensive tyre testing during the IRTA test at Jerez, due to the groin injury he sustained at Phillip Island, Hopkins soon realised he doesn't have enough of the best performing tyres available - and so will need to ration his preferred rubber for the rest of the weekend.
"The focus today has been on improving the rear grip and we've tried many different tyre combinations. Unfortunately we've found that the tyre that is working the best for us is one we've allocated the least of. This is due to us not being able to put many laps in during the test here because of my injury," he confirmed. "Tomorrow we have to continue with working on the rear traction, although we don't have the option to run with our preferred tyre all day, as we need to save some of our allocation for the race."
Towards the end of this afternoon's session Hopkins was set to post his fastest lap, and move back into the top ten on the timesheet, until a mistake at the end of the back straight saw him crash without injury.
"I did have a small crash at the end of the back straight when I started to push; I braked a bit too hard and lost the front but thankfully it hasn't aggravated my injury,2 he explained.
"This is a track I've always enjoyed throughout my grand prix career so I'd like to get the Kawasaki working well here; we're making good progress despite starting out with a bit of a disadvantage," Hopper concluded.
Team-mate West continued working to eliminate the issues he's suffered throughout testing and the first race in Qatar, where a lack of stability under braking and rear traction on corner exit is hampering his progress.
"Although I've come here with a relatively fresh look on things, we're still suffering with the same difficulties we've had during testing," admitted the Australian. "The rear of the bike just isn't sticking well enough, which means we're not getting the drive out of the corners.
crash.net