Guintoli says progress is genuine

The French rookie beat championship leader Casey Stoner by 0.206 seconds right at the end of the afternoon session, and while Guintoli readily admitted that the team had used qualifying tyres on his best laps, he said that Tech 3 had still made a step forward.

"We used qualifiers, but normally we always use qualifiers and we are between 10th and 15th," he told autosport.com.

"So using qualifiers and being quite a bit in front is brilliant, really.

"We've got more to try tomorrow race tyre-wise, but the qualifiers are working well. That's a good point already because we've often struggled with that.

"We need to just get the race tyre pace better, but race tyre pace was about the same as (Michelin-shod factory Yamaha rider) Colin (Edwards) today, so it's still quite good."

Guintoli believes that his improved fitness after a recent operation on his arms and the experience of testing the Yamaha M1 at Brno after last year's race played a part in his practice performance.

"I feel much, much better in my arms now," he said. "I've had the operation done and I've got a bit of pain in my wrist now, but I think that's because the operation was only three weeks ago. My actual muscles are working much better.

"I always liked this track, and I practised with the M1 last year, so there wasn't so much to learn with the big bikes."