Nicky Hayden reckoned he could have maintained his promising practice form in today's Catalunya qualifying session but for a crash on his final lap.
After a miserable start to his year, as he struggled to adapt to the idiosyncrasies of the Ducati GP9, Hayden took an encouraging sixth place yesterday and felt he had made a breakthrough.
But he will start only 13th tomorrow following the crash.
"Today we weren't quite able to pick up where we left off yesterday but I went half a second quicker this morning - unfortunately it wasn't enough to close the gap on the guys in front because they improved too," Hayden said.
"I shaved another couple of tenths off again this afternoon but on my last run I crashed in Turn 2 and that was pretty much that.
"The position isn't great but on the other hand with just a couple more tenths I'd have been a lot further up. I know I'm talking a lot of 'ifs' and 'buts' here and at the end of the day the position is what counts and we're not high enough up.
"It's just a shame that on the lap when I'm sure I would have found those extra couple of tenths the rear stepped out in Turn 1 and when I flicked it over into Turn 2it put me down pretty good."
Hayden is confident that the accident will not hamper his race tomorrow, despite sustained a hard blow to his wrist when he fell.
"I smacked my left wrist quite hard but I don't think it's a big issue and other than that I seem to be okay," he said. "So we're looking forward to trying for more tomorrow."