MotoGP: John Hopkins happy with Kawasaki progress

American John Hopkins says he is happy that Kawasaki is now making big strides with the performance of its factory ZX-RR after his injury disrupted pre-season.

Hopkins, who scored his best result of 2008 when he finished fifth in Estoril, spent a large chunk of pre-season testing less than 100 per cent fit after a big crash at Phillip Island.

Hopkins suffered a serious groin muscle injury and as a result bike development slowed, with Aussie team-mate Anthony West struggling to show the promising form he displayed at the end of 2007.

John Hopkins told MCN: “We have started to make huge steps. It’s just a matter of playing catch up right now.

“The amount of testing we lost – about a month and a half – cost us a bit on development.

“And right now we are stuck in the middle of the races trying to play catch up but we are moving in the right direction.

“Estoril was a positive result and I’m confident we can carry it on now for the next few races.”