De Puniet rues lack of top speed

De Puniet finished down in 13th position in today's practice after claiming he was losing out to rivals on the faster areas, and especially on the main straight.

The Frenchman, however, believes there is still room for improvement once he works on a different tyre option tested today.

"The base set-up we have is working well here and I was able to put in some fast and consistent laps this afternoon," said de Puniet.

"Late on in the session we tried another race tyre option and I think that, with more time on this tyre tomorrow, it could well lead to an improvement in my lap time during Saturday's race.

"We still need to work a little more on refining the overall set-up of the bike, but it's fairly obvious that we are a little bit down on top speed here. The bike is quick through the few fast corners on this track, but we're losing out at other points, like on the main straight."

Teammate Olivier Jacque, back at the Losail circuit after his crash during testing last month, took it easily during the first day, but the Frenchman was still encouraged despite finishing down in 17th.

"After the crash that I had here during the test, we decided to take it easy and not hurry today," he said.

"We had a tough morning, firstly with a gearbox problem that caused me to run straight on a couple of times, and then with a complete lack of feeling on the front like I had no grip.

"I was not confident of ending the first day with a good feeling, but we did a couple of front suspension modifications for my last run and I feel that we are now going in the right direction."