De Puniet baffled by accident

On the second turn of the first lap the Kawasaki rider lost the rear of his Ninja ZX-RR and collected Dani Pedrosa, who was fighting with him for fifth place.

Both riders crashed and retired on the spot, while Pedrosa's teammate Nicky Hayden had to take avoiding action and rejoined the race in last place after a run through the gravel trap. The American eventually finished the race 13th.

"I don't know what happened," said de Puniet. "We have to check the data because when I tried to change direction, entering the left corner, I lost the rear, touched Pedrosa and crashed.

"I don't know if I used the rear brake or not, I want to check our data so I have a better idea about what happened. Obviously, I'm disappointed. I feel I did really well over the weekend so, to finish the race at the second corner is not very good.

"Luckily, there aren't any big injuries: the footpeg went in to my back when I crashed, and that hurts, but it's nothing major. But yes, obviously, I'm not very happy."

Kawasaki competition manager Michael Bartholemy, however, put the blame on his rider and apologised to their Honda rivals.

"Randy has been fast all weekend, but then he made a mistake going into the second turn and that's where his race ended," said Bartholemy.

"It's a shame because he had the potential to finish on the podium today and I'm sorry for the two riders who were the innocent victims of the crash."

De Puniet's teammate Anthony West had a better race and was classified in eighth place.

"My start wasn't so bad, which meant I was in quite a good position going into turn one, but as I approached the second corner all I could see were guys flying through the air," said West.

"I didn't feel that strong during the first few laps. In fact, to be honest, much of the race was really difficult because I had a few small problems with the feel of the bike all the way through. Although small, these problems made it quite difficult to wrestle the bike around such a small and tight track.

"I'm a bit annoyed (Toni) Elias went past me towards the end: just like he did in Brno! But I held him off for most of the race, which is some small consolation.

"I think he could see that I had to fight the bike at some parts of the track as he was waiting behind me. Anyway, by the later stages, the tyres were pretty well gone and I couldn't hold him off.

"Still, top ten is not too bad, you've got to be happy with that, and I got some more points. If we can improve the small problems we had today, I'm sure we'll be running a lot further up and I'll be able to go better towards the end of the race.

"We're always working on things and have more time to improve further during testing tomorrow."