Jacque: I must change my mindset

The Frenchman's 2007 deal with Kawasaki is his first full-time racing seat for three seasons, and he spent most of 2006 as a test rider.

"I need to switch from development to race mode for the qualifying session," he said.

"I need to stop being so analytical on track and, instead, concentrate on finding a good rhythm on the bike in the morning, before switching to a qualifying tyre for the timed session."

Jacque was only 15th fastest in Saturday's test having encountered some new issues with the Kawasaki Ninja.

"The characteristics of the Jerez circuit are very different to those of Sepang and Qatar where we've tested previously, and this means that we're experiencing some problems we've not had up to now," he said.

"My feeling is that, at this track and on the gearing we ran today, the power delivery is a little bit too aggressive.

"This makes it difficult to find traction out of the turns, and it's also making the bike more prone to lifting the front wheel under acceleration.

"However, we know what changes we need to make for tomorrow; it just wasn't possible to make them today because we had some problems with my number one bike and we didn't want to lose out on track time while we made the necessary changes to my spare machine."

Jacque's teammate Randy de Puniet had a more positive test on the second Kawasaki, setting the eighth fastest time.

"I was happy with my lap times today; the speed was good, but so was the consistency, and this is important," he said.

"The race simulation was my best so far in the run up to the new season, but I still think there is room for further improvement tomorrow.

"I tried a qualifier late in the session, on which I set my fastest lap, but I was slowed by another rider, so I know I can go faster here."