De Puniet disappointed with sixth

After qualifying in sixth position yesterday, de Puniet felt confident of an even better result in today's race. But a poor start and a mistake during the race meant that in the end sixth position was a good finish for the Frenchman.

"Unfortunately, like many for me this year, my start was bad, so I still need to work on those. I got behind Nakano and tried to pass but I made a mistake, losing the rear, and nearly went into the gravel at turn four.

"I lost another place and was behind Shinya and Anthony, and then it was impossible to overtake, so I waited four or five laps and went for it. Then I got Hopkins and Melandri, who I think had a tyre problem or something, and I finished sixth.

"It's not a bad result but sure, after the practices, I expected to do better in the race."

His Australian teammate Anthony West also made a bad start, but had climbed back up the order to ninth before tyre problems in the closing lap saw him finish in twelfth position.

"My start wasn't that great but I started to work my way through and did okay; I was feeling good. I tried to push as much as I could until I'd pretty much destroyed the rear tyre.

"I couldn't keep my speed up through the corners and, as has been the case over the past day or so, it was particularly difficult to feel comfortable when the bike was leaned over on the left hand side.

"I was working to stay at the front of my group but by the last few laps I don't think the tyre had anything left.

"I'm not very happy about my result but the fans here have been really supportive so hopefully, by the time we come back here next year, I can give them some more to cheer about."

Despite his riders' disappointments, Kawasaki competition manager Michael Bartholemy was happy with the team's results, pleased with de Puniet's sixth and understanding of West's struggles, and is looking forward to next weekend in Malaysia.

"I'm feeling pretty happy, over all. Randy's sixth is a good result and, while I'm a bit disappointed that Anthony wasn't able to finish a bit higher by the end of the race, it looks like he may have had a few problems with his tyres.

"This seems to have made him lose some places at the end of the race, which is a shame, but at the end of the day, both riders rode well for us today and kept fighting until the end.

"We can now look forward to Sepang: we test a lot there and know the ZX-RR is well-suited to it, so we'll see what happens next weekend."