De Puniet left hoping for more

The Frenchman, who will start his last race for Kawasaki before moving to Honda LCR next year, blamed a slide on his final run for missing the front row.

However, de Puniet is happy with the work done and is confident he can do well in the race.

"I was hoping for the first row for my last race for Kawasaki but still, my position is pretty good because it's very difficult to overtake here," he said. "We've improved the race set up hugely on the bike today and I managed to do good, consistent times during the sessions.

"I had a big slide on my final qualifier, just before I had to brake for a corner, so I lost a couple of tenths and, because of that, narrowly missed out on the front row.

"I hope to continue to improve during tomorrow's warm up but I'm feeling really good."