Randy de Puniet has admitted that he squandered a chance to impress in French Grand Prix qualifying thanks to an early crash.
After his superb fourth at Jerez and third place in Friday practice, the single lap specialist was expected to be one of the stars of today's qualifying session at his home race.
But instead he could only manage 10th after crashing his main LCR Honda when he braked on a slippery white line early in the session. He returned on his spare bike but was unable to replicate his practice performance, and admitted that his riding had been affected by the error.
"I'm not so satisfied with qualifying because I made some mistakes and crashed at the start," de Puniet told the official MotoGP website. "After that my riding style was not so good and I finished in only 10th position. It's not so good for tomorrow."
He is confident that he will be more competitive in the race, although he is limiting his ambitions to a strong points finish at present.
"Anyway the bike is ready for race conditions," de Puniet said. "My target is to finish in the top 10 tomorrow."