Casey Stoner says his confidence was shaken considerably by a crash during morning practice for the German Grand Prix at the Sachsenring.
The Honda rider, who leads the championship, was one of three riders who fell at the downhill right-handed Turn 11 during the session, and said his mindset had been affected by it.
"I'm not too happy with how today has gone," said the 2007 world champion.
"We had a crash second lap out in FP1 and this affected us quite a lot; we lost a lot of time coming in and changing leathers and then I had to go out on a bike that I wasn't quite as comfortable with.
"Apart from the last few laps it was a bit of a waste, our confidence was knocked and I'm feeling a little sore."
The Australian's best time of the morning still put him second on the time sheets, but he fell to fourth during the afternoon, behind Marco Simoncelli, Jorge Lorenzo and his teammate Dani Pedrosa.
He believes that a big step forward is needed in final practice on Saturday if he is to be a factor in qualifying.
"This afternoon we tried the bike from this morning's crash but something wasn't quite right with it so we had to come back in and get on the other bike.
"We definitely made some progress, we started using hard tires front and rear and made some positive steps but we still need to take a big step forward tomorrow."