Estoril, 4 October: the LCR Honda MotoGP rider Randy De Puniet got the final 11th place in today’s 28-lap Portugal Grand Prix at Estoril. The fourteenth round of the season started today at 13:00 local time and was run at a very hot pace with ambience temperature of 27°C ahead 45.539 fans with 800cc riders struggling with the extreme heat.

De Puniet started from the second row after yesterday’s good qualifying when he took the sixth fastest lap time at the 4182 Km race track. The Frenchman, now almost fully recovered from the broken left ankle he sustained in August, set impressive lap times throughout the week end but he was not able to translate his pace into a good performance today. Immediately after the start, Randy’s boot caught on the fairing and opened. Unable to ride with an unsecured foot Randy was forced to spend time to close the boot again and lost valuable positions.
Lorenzo took the victory ahead Stoner and Pedrosa.

De Puniet – 11th

De Puniet – 11th: “I remain speechless! We could easily finish in the top-eight but the bad luck picked on me. After the start in the first corner my right boot caught in the frame and opened. I could not turn and tried to close it for a couple of laps loosing valuable positions. Then I push hard to overtake Vermeulen but suffered an highside knocking my injured ankle in the fairing. The last four laps have been a bit painful for me and this result is not what we expected considering the good rhythm we had in the last two days”.