Cal Crutchlow says he needs to make improvements and find time in the first sector at the Sachsenring. Despite breaking into the top seven in both sessions in Germany, the Briton said there were clear areas in which he was surrendering time to the front-runners.
"It was a decent start to the weekend and I am not too far away from the best pace in both dry and wet conditions, but I need to make some improvements in the first sector because that is where I am losing a lot of time," he said.
"It is mainly in the first two corners where I'm struggling and we don't fully understand why, so tonight I'll sit down with my crew and analyze the data so we can work on being faster in that part of the track tomorrow."
Crutchlow did however admit he was happy with his overall progress, particularly given his struggles at the technical German circuit in 2011 when he finished 14th, his joint-worst result of the year.
"I am still very happy today because last year this was one of my worst races. I was only 14th and a lot slower than the best pace, but I was close to the front in both sessions and that's a positive way to kick off the weekend."
Crutchlow's Tech 3 Yamaha teammate Andrea Dovizioso was more upbeat, labeling himself "really satisfied" with his early form.
"Immediately this morning in the dry I had a very good feeling and we concentrated mainly on the race set-up. In the past here I have been very fast in practice but then had a lot of problems in the race, so we have worked a lot on conserving tire life," he said.
"This track is very short and you spend a lot of time carrying a lot of lean angle, so it is easy to wear the tyre too quickly. I have been working on carrying a little less lean angle to help save the tires for the end of the race.
"I am happy with my pace in the wet also because at the start of the session when the track was at its wettest, I followed [Dani] Pedrosa and I could comfortably stay with him and he was the fastest in all conditions today."