Le Mans just the tonic after painful Shanbghai surprise.
The Kawasaki Racing Team heads for this weekend's French Grand Prix at Le Mans in confident mood, with both John Hopkins and Anthony West determined to make amends after the disappointment of Shanghai.
The Le Mans circuit is populated with first gear corners, demanding a bike that is stable under braking, but with explosive acceleration out of the low-speed turns, and Kawasaki competition manager Michael Bartholemy believes that the current machine could be a threat this weekend.
"Our Ninja ZX-RR has been well suited to the characteristics of the Le Mans circuit in the past, so we head to France confident that we can improve significantly on our results last time out in China," he said, "I hope that John has fully recovered from the injury he sustained in the Shanghai race, while we've also got some changes to make to Anthony's bike, that I hope will eliminate the problems he's been having and allow him to start challenging for top ten positions again."
Hopkins insists that he is now fighting fit having caught the back of his knee on the foot peg after a collision with Alex de Angelis forced him off the track in Shanghai. Although he didn't make a big deal of the injury at the time, the 24-year old Anglo-American was left with a large haematoma and, although it's not a serious injury, such soft tissue wounds can remain painful for a long time.
"My leg is completely black and blue with bruising but, while it looks quite nasty, it hasn't caused me any problems and I'm confident it won't be an issue on the bike," Hopkins, who has resumed his usual training programme, insisted.
"I'm looking forward to Le Mans, as it's a track that suits my riding style and it's one that I like racing on. The track features a lot of hard braking, quick changes of direction and hard acceleration, and that's exactly what the Ninja ZX-RR has been designed for so, when you combine this with our Bridgestone tyres, which always seem to work well here, then I think we're in a strong position going into this weekend.
"The only thing we need to watch out for is the weather, as it's notoriously changeable at Le Mans, but, wet or dry, I'm confident that we can put in a strong performance in France."
Equally frustrated by his Shanghai performance, team-mate Ant West is determined to get his season back on track this weekend. Since China, the 27-year old Australian has been working closely with his crew to find a solution to the traction problems that have plagued him since the start of the season, and he heads for the French Grand Prix confident that they can find some improvement.
"After the disappointment of the result in China, I'm looking forward to Le Mans and, hopefully, securing the result I know I'm capable of," he said, "I've had some problems this year with the rear tyre spinning up too easily out of the turns but, after discussing the problem with my crew and Kawasaki's technical staff, we think we've identified what we need to change on the bike to see an improvement in this area.
"If we can fix this problem, then I'm confident that a top ten finish in France is a realistic goal for me."
