Jorge Lorenzo admitted that he was having to push beyond the limit to try and fight for pole at Brno, after crashing out of qualifying and leaving himself third on the grid.
The championship leader had a low-side crash at Turn 11 on his last run. While Lorenzo was thrown clear and escaped injury, his bike somersaulted through the gravel trap before landing atop the barriers. Lorenzo felt a setup miscue was the root cause of the crash.
"This wasn't the best practice session of the year for us," he admitted. "We made some modifications that didn't work and it was especially a problem in the front, which was closing on me a lot.
"I wasn't fast and I was having to take too many risks. Then I made a mistake and the bike went flying."
He expects a challenging race given his setup woes today, and is also concerned that the Yamaha's engine might have been damaged in the incident.
"I really hope the engine is OK for tomorrow, luckily I am not hurt and I was able to get up straight away," said Lorenzo. "We are still on the front row and we can't always be on top. I think tomorrow will be a tough race but we will see how we can improve our setting and see what happens."