The reigning champion was just pipped to the top spot on the timesheets by Repsol Honda rider Dani Pedrosa, but feels that there is plenty more speed to come from his own machine just by the evidence of the first day.
"We're struggling a little bit in T4, as we did last year," said the Australian. "We need a little more acceleration coming onto the straights and it's a bit difficult for us in those tight but long corners.
"Tomorrow we'll make some changes to try and improve on that but basically the idea is to compensate for it by making our strong points even stronger.
"In any case today has been a good step for us because we haven't been really competitive in the last three races and it's good to start a grand prix in the right way again."
Teammate Marco Melandri did not have such a good time, ending up 14th on the timesheets after clearly hoping for better following his strong performance in the Chinese Grand Prix.
"I was hoping to start this weekend a little better but even though engine performance isn't bad we still haven't found the right way forward with the set-up of the cycle part," explained the Italian.
"At the moment I can't brake as hard as I would like. When I'm braking with the bike upright it's okay but when it's leaned over the problems start. With a lot of braking areas in the turns at this track it means I'm losing a couple of vital tenths.
"We've done some different tyre tests and even though we've found something I like we're still not getting enough grip. We'll obviously try to improve that tomorrow because we want to at least be at the same level we reached two weeks ago in China."
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