Kawasaki yet to decide on Jacque

The Frenchman, who is making his full-time return to MotoGP this year, crashed at Turn Two in the afternoon and banged his head.

Although otherwise uninjured, he was taken to hospital for observation - and the team will wait until tomorrow before making a decision about whether he is fit enough to get back on the bike.

Despite Jacque's dramas, Kawasaki were happy with their first day of running at Qatar with the new Ninja ZX-RR. Even though Randy de Puniet was only 11th fastest, the team were upbeat about their findings as they worked on set-up and tyre evaluation.

Technical manager Naoya Kaneko said: "I'm not worried about lap times because they will come when we find the best set up. We understood from the last test that for us it is more important to focus on tyre life to be able to perform consistently for 22 laps, a race length.

"At the moment, a couple of the tyres we tried have potential but we need to confirm it tomorrow. The first day is still too early to draw conclusions. Especially at this track, which is not in perfect condition."