Melandri frustrated by de Puniet crash

The Ducati rider's troubled season continued in qualifying, where he was only 18th-fastest, but Melandri felt he was more competitive in the race until a brush between de Puniet's LCR Honda and Chris Vermeulen's Suzuki forced him to take avoiding action and fall.

"De Puniet made contact with Vermeulen and crashed right in front of me," Melandri said.

"I was to the left of him so I tried to dive to the inside but there wasn't enough space. I had to go so wide so that I didn't run over Randy that I ran off track, but I was going at speed and crashed."

But during the few laps he completed, Melandri was sufficiently encouraged by his race set-up to consider keeping it for Catalunya next weekend.

"It was a shame because I'd made a decent start and passed a few riders," he said.

"Things were going better than they had in practice but now we'll never know if I could have kept it up over race distance. Will look at starting out in Barcelona with the same set-up we found for the race today."

De Puniet also felt he had been on course for a strong race before the incident

"I am very disappointed because I made a very good start, probably the best of this season, and I was in the top ten on the first lap," he said.

"But I immediately felt a strange feeling in the rear and the bike started to slide and bump. I tried to keep my position but it was not possible and lost some places.

"Then, on lap six at turn two, I overtook Vermeulen but he probably hit my brake level and was not able to control the bike.

"I crashed and suffered a small injury in my left little finger. It aches a lot now but it will be okay for Barcelona."