De Puniet frustrated by timing error

His teammate Oliver Jacque will start a career-best fourth on his return after an arm injury.

"I'm really disappointed about how the qualifying session ended," said de Puniet.

"We did a good job throughout the day, improving both the dry and the wet set-up, and I was among the fastest riders for most of the qualifying session.

"But I got confused at the end when I saw on my pit board that there was one minute left. I pushed as much as I could and I improved my lap time.

"What I didn't know was that I just crossed the line with a couple of seconds left and, considering the track was drier and my bike was feeling fantastic, I'm sure I could have got a second or even a first row place."

Team boss Ichiro Yoda was equally frustrated with de Puniet.

"I'm really satisfied with Olivier's performance as, even though he is not fully fit, he's made a big effort and got a good qualifying position for tomorrow's race, which is really important. Unfortunately, I cannot say the same about Randy," Yoda said.

"He was improving his lap times, and he still had another chance, but he missed it. He needs to concentrate and if he has a chance, he must go for it."

Jacque, who missed the last race at Le Mans after sustaining severe arm lacerations in practice, was thrilled to take his best MotoGP qualifying position on his comeback, and believes he will be in very good shape if the conditions remain wet.

"The feeling in the wet was good and we improved the set up both for wet and dry conditions during the course of the day," he said.

"I have more rear traction and, working with the mapping, we managed to make the engine less aggressive under damp conditions.

"In the afternoon, we first went out with wet tyres and I took the opportunity to improve my lap times when the track was drying out, just before it started raining again.

"Our strategy paid off later, too, as we waited until 10 minutes before the end to go out again, this time with intermediate tyres. The track had dried out again and I almost got a first row spot. I must thank my crew as today everything worked perfectly.

"Physically, I felt on good form in the wet and even this morning was better than yesterday. My arm is not painful anymore, although I can still feel a lack of strength in the dry.

"The weather is quite unstable and, at the moment, we're not sure what it's going to be like for the race. Personally, I'd prefer a wet race, even though the conditions are trickier, as it's less demanding physically and I enjoy it."