De Puniet promises to learn from crash

The Frenchman had charged through the field to lead his home race as the usual front-runners rode cautiously in the early damp conditions. He established a 1.6-second advantage before falling on lap nine.

"I am so disappointed and I'm sorry for my crew, the team, Kawasaki and Bridgestone as they have all worked so hard," de Puniet said.

"I was quickly able to fight through the field and take the lead. And then the rain started to fall harder and I was about to come in to switch bikes when I crashed.

"Maybe I was too fast, I don't know, but the result was that the rear came round on me at the Esses Bleus and down I went.

"It's a shame because running at the front of the field in my home Grand Prix was a fantastic feeling. But, I learnt an important lesson today and I hope that I will have the opportunity to lead a race again this season, when I might handle things differently."

Kawasaki's competition manager Michael Bartholomy was disappointed by de Puniet's error, but hoped he would learn from it.

"We came to Le Mans with high expectations of Randy, because we knew our Ninja ZX-RR would be competitive here.," he said.

"Early on in the race it looked like Randy was going to fulfil these expectations; he was confident on the bike and very aggressive in carving his way through to the front of the field.

"Unfortunately he either got a bit too over-confident or misread the worsening conditions, and crashed out of the race on the lap on which he was due to return to the pits to switch to a machine with a wet set-up.

"But, once again, he has shown his potential and now he has some experience of leading a race, and we hope that the next time he finds himself at the front of the field then he'll be able to better handle the pressure."