"It makes it so much easier when the first few laps go to plan as I had found out in Malaysia. My start wasn’t particularly good. I went from 10th to 13th off the line because, I later found out that because I pulled in too early in warm up and didn’t do a practice start, the clutch was too new and hadn’t been given a chance to free up.
"I was just behind my team-mate on the run through the quick left and then into Honda Hairpin and I put it up the inside of him to go 11th. Then I was right behind Roby Rolfo on the way into the next left and he sat up very early so I went for the outside line and went the long way round, around the outside of him (which I have to say felt good)!
"Next in line was Nieto and I almost passed him through the fast Hayshed corner before Lukey Heights and in a way it was a good job I didn’t. On braking down the hill into the next corner I was right behind him and all of a sudden he shot to the inside, jumped across the kerb and wiped out Debon with him. That just broke the gap to the group in front of me with 1.5 seconds to Aoyama off the back of it.
"At the start of the 2nd lap Rolfo and De Puniet passed me down the start finish straight. Through the fast left before Honda Hairpin I almost hit Rolfo as he came off the gas much earlier than I expected, I had to suddenly pick up the bike but didn’t lose anything, De Puniet then went wide at Honda and Rolfo and I got back up the inside of him.
"Two corners later I passed Rolfo into the Hayshed and was up to 7th and then at the end of that lap De Puniet came back passed down the start/finish straight so I went back to 8th.
"On lap 3 De Puniet just started to edge away but I was catching Aoyama and pulling away from Rolfo. The front end definitely wasn’t quite as good with the full tank as I was getting more chattering than I had in the qualifying but it still wasn't too bad. On the 4th lap I did a 1.35.3 and caught half a second on Aoyama.
