A tough 2008 MotoGP season came to a tough♑ end for Kawasaki on Sunday, when John Hopkins led the ZX-RR challenge with a 14th place finish - having been as high as seventh on the opening lap.

The 25-year-old Anglo-American set his sights on hunting down the group ahead after hsi fast start, but was soon s💝truggling to get his bike turned. Despite his best efforts and some gritty riding, Hopkins lost a place to Shinya Nakano on lap four, and was then uไnable to hold off a succession of attacks as he struggled to find grip.

"After getting such a good start to the race it became obvious we were going to be fighting a losing 𓆏battle, because I soon realised I couldn't get the bike turned well enough," said John.

"This also added to the wear on the rear tyre, and the season-long traction issues we've suffered were evident again, so after the first few laps I had to fight for every position I could. We knew it was going to be a tough one because, after all of the rain this weekend we've had very little dry set-up time, but I was really hoping for a top ten finish. I'm also incredibly disappointed as my crew chief, Fiorenzo Fanali🅰, is retiring after thi🔯s race and I really wanted to get one final good result for him.

"The 2009 season starts with testing tomorrow and we have to start finding so♎lutions to our problems so we can be competitive right from the word go next year," added Hopper.

2008 marked a step backwards for Kawasaki in just about every area in terms of re🐲sults - Hopkins and Anthony West finished just 16th and 18th in the riders' standings (Randy de Puniet was eleventh last year) and both riders took a best finish of fifth (de Puniet claimed a second place).

Kawasaki also lost ♏64 points relative to last year in the teams' championship and 56 points in the constructors' championship. Kawasaki was thus ahead of only the (one-rider) Honda LCR outfit in the teams' classification, and remained fifth (and now last) in the con💃structors' championship.

"Today's race was a tough ending to a tough season for the Kawasaki Racing Team," admitted Kawasaki competition manager Michael Bartholemy.🦩 "Conditions out on track were very different to those in practice, but both riders suf♛fered with the issues that have plagued us throughout this year. The final result for this season is certainly not one I was expecting.

"I was confident that with the undoubted calibre of our riders, combined with the professionalism of everyone involved in Ka🥀wasaki's MotoGP project, we would be regularly finishing in the top te﷽n, or even top five.

"Unfortunately it didn't work out as we were expec🐻ting and this is something we hope the all-new fo🌸r 2009 bike will address."

West, who has been replaced by Marco Melandri for 200🍃9 and will switch to the🅘 World Supersport Championship, finished 17th at Valencia.