Assen, 25 June: LCR Honda MotoGP Team racer Randy De Puniet was in sparkling form today at the Dutch GP opening day topping the time sheets with the best lap time of 1’37.842 followed by Rossi and Stoner. First 60-minute free session at Assen circuit was conducted on dry track with ambience temperature of 25°C and the Frenchman went about his business completing 25 laps at the 4.555 Km track.

De Puniet concentrated his work mainly on tyre testing and chassis set-up finding a competitive overall package thanks to the adjustments made at Montmeló track during the post-race day of testing. After a difficult beginning in the first part of the session, the 28-year-old riding the LCR RC212V no. 14 went straight to the top of the standing clocking his fastest lap time on lap 24 of 25.

De Puniet -1st – 1’37.842

De Puniet – 1st: “It has been a big surprise for me! In the beginning of the session I was not pretty comfortable as I started on soft tyre and my front feeling was very bad: I had some movements and could not lap as I would like. Unfortunately the second bike set up was almost the same so we decided to go out on a harder front tyre. The feeling was much better but I made some small mistakes. I knew that my rhythm on this track could be faster and so I went back to the garage to swap on to the no. 1 bike which was set–up like the test in Barcelona. Thanks to some quick adjustments on the chassis geometry and suspension regulations I finally set the pace in the last 5 laps and this makes me very happy. However it is all very close up to the top so I need to stay focused”.