Improvements leave Hacking excited about MotoGP debut

Kawasaki substitute rider Jamie Hacking and regular competitor Anthony West react to a difficult qualifying session at Laguna Seca.

Jamie Hacking - Seventeenth

`We definitely went in the right direction with the set-up changes last night, as the bike was transformed and I was able to push much harder today. We made some more small improvements during this morning´s practice session. I´ve never used Bridgestone qualifiers before, so the extra grip came as something of a surprise. On my first run on the soft tyres I overrode the front at Rainey Curve and low-sided, which meant a run back to the pit box for the spare bike. I managed to improve my lap time with my last flying lap, but I think I´d need much more time on the qualifiers before I was able to get the best from them. We have some more small changes we want to make tonight and I´m pretty confident that if these work as expected, then it should be possible to drop into the low 1´22s during tomorrow´s race. With the progress we made today with the bike, I´m really excited about racing it tomorrow.´

Anthony West - Eighteenth

`We made similar changes overnight to Jamie, but we didn´t seem to get the same improvement today. The front still feels vague, especially when I´m braking on the edge of the tyre, which you have to do a lot of here at Laguna. I couldn´t even stand the bike up to brake before turning in, because that meant I missed the apex almost every time. We will look again at the set-up of the bike tonight; Jamie tried a few things today that might also work for us, but we won´t know until we try them out during warm-up tomorrow. If will be a difficult race, but it should still be possible to finish in the points if I just get my head down and push as hard as I can.´