Casey Stoner was upbeat despite missing out on points for the first time since joining Ducati as Valentino Rossi moved ominously into the world MotoGP championship lead at the French Grand Prix.
A lack of grip combined with engine problems robbed Australia's world champion Stoner of any chance of fighting for a podium spot at Le Mans.
Italian great Valentino Rossi notched his second consecutive victory in the MotoGP series as he took over atop the points standings from Spain's Dani Pedrosa.
Rossi, who won from fellow Yamaha riders Jorge Lorenzo and Colin Edwards, equalled Spaniard Angel Nieto's record of 90 Grand Prix wins across all classes and moved four victories away from Italian Giacomo Agostini's record 68 wins in the showcase category.
"I am so happy to win two in a row (he won in Shanghai, China, previously), and it is the first time I have done that since 2006," said Rossi.
"We are in good shape. Yamaha did a great effort over the close season to change things round."
Stoner struggled to cross the line in 16th place, the first time since he signed with Ducati at the start of last year, that he has failed to snare points.
He remains fourth in the points standings but is now 41 points behind Rossi (97) after five rounds with Lorenzo and Pedrosa (both 94), also well in front of him.
Stoner had to deal with a serious lack of grip from one side of his front tyre, possibly due to the slight change in track conditions caused by a wet morning warm-up.
Then on the 21st lap engine problems forced him to pit.
"I got a decent start to the race today but unfortunately I just didn't have any feeling for the right hand side of the front tyre," Stoner said.
"I was losing a lot of grip at maximum lean and kept closing the front so I lost a lot of confidence.
"I couldn't brake as late as I had been doing during practice so I had to ride around it and managed to get to the point where it was only when the tyre was right on the edge that I was really losing time.
"I was there or thereabouts, still in with a shout of a podium position, and it started to rain so I thought that could give us a chance.
"Unfortunately that was when I started to have a problem with the engine. I couldn't get any drive off the bottom end and couldn't overtake anybody.
"Then a couple of laps later the engine problem effectively ended the race for us."
Nevertheles was optimistic about his chances at the Italian Grand Prix on June 1.
"This weekend has had a lot of positive aspects to it," Stoner said.
"We've got back up to speed again and found our old feeling with the bike so it's just a case of everything coming together in a race.
"That's why I'm looking forward to the next one."
