LCR Honda MotoGP rider Randy De Puniet had a brilliant night at Losail race track ending the MotoGP's first ever- floodlit qualifying session in 5th place.
The Frenchman aboard the Michelin-shod Honda RC212V nr. 14 worked hard with his crew to solve a lack of front end grip in both sessions, even with these problems he managed to be the first Honda on the grid. Despite a crash in the evening free session, De Puniet circulated the “desert” circuit 40 times during the two sessions clocking his quickest time of 1'54.818.
The track surface dropped to 15° this evening with all the riders making their tyres choices for tomorrows 22-lap night event which will start at 23:00 local time. Today's frontrunner Jorge Lorenzo topped the board with a 1'53.927 lap followed by Toseland and Edwards.
De Puniet: “Today's track conditions were better than yesterday but it was a long day for me and the team. In the free session I lost the front and crashed but my Team made a excellent work and the bike was ready for the qualifying. Firstly I went out on used tyre with the bike nr. 1: the setting was different but the lap times were consistent and fast. I came in to fit a new tyre but could not finish the run because of some technical problems. So I decided to swap on bike nr. 2 and the feeling was pretty good. We started to test the q-tyres and my pace was faster than last week testing days. On my last qualifying lap I came upon Elias who stopped my fast lap and decided to slow down. I feel quite satisfied but the feeling on race tyres could be better: we will work it out in tomorrows warm-up session”.
