Kawasaki: fifth marks a turning point

In the build-up to Barcelona, Kawasaki had urged riders de Puniet and Olivier Jacque to focus on finishing the race after a series of mistakes and injuries had disrupted the first part of their season.

Jacque then crashed heavily in final practice and had to miss the rest of the weekend, but de Puniet qualified on the front row for the first time in his MotoGP career and finished a career-best fifth, despite still being in pain from collarbone and knee damage sustained in recent crashes.

"Despite carrying injuries, his pace has been extraordinary all weekend, where he's virtually made second place on the timesheet his own throughout practice and qualifying," Bartholomy said.

"The pain is etched on his face every time he takes his helmet off, but he managed to stay consistent throughout the race today, and he wasn't fazed at all by the collision with (Toni) Elias in the opening laps."

Although de Puniet had feared his pace would fade in the second half of the race, he managed to hold off the closing Loris Capirossi and Chris Vermeulen to secure fifth.

"Towards the end I thought Capirossi and Vermeulen might catch Randy, but he realised they were closing and kept his rhythm to maintain the gap to the line," said Bartholomy.

"In the end, he achieved a career best finish in MotoGP and gave Kawasaki our best result of the team's new era."

Bartholomy hopes that de Puniet's Catalunya performance will set the tone for the rest of Kawasaki's year.

"After some disappointments, this weekend couldn't have turned out better for us, and I hope Catalunya will prove to be the turning point in a season that seems to have been plagued by bad luck up until now," he said.