Barcelona, 6 June: The opening day of free practice for Sunday’s Catalunya Grand Prix was conducted in near perfect summer weather today, with LCR Honda MotoGP rider Randy De Puniet setting the 12th fastest time. De Puniet was one of 13 riders within one second of the best time posted by Spanish rider Pedrosa in a closely contested session at the Montmeló circuit.

The Frenchman aboard the Michelin-shod Honda RC212V clocked his fastest lap time of 1’43.742 although the pain in his left little finger completing 41 laps throughout the day.
Despite two crashes in the opening day at the 4.727km track De Puniet feels confident for tomorrow’s qualifying session. Today’s ambience temperature reached 26°C whilst the track surface reached 41°C.

De Puniet – 12th: “Today was not very easy. At the beginning I was very fast but after that we tried some different tyres and suspension regulations and was difficult for me to improve the lap time as the biggest problem came from the rear because it was spinning to much. Also the front-end feeling does not make me very confident especially in the braking but I think that with some adjustments we can easily improve our pace. We need to improve the feeling with the front-end so I can easily close the gap and come back in the top eight. My little finger aches a lot and in this morning first practice I crashed suffering a big bruise in my right hand so now my hands are both “damaged” and it’s not easy to ride in these conditions. I want to thank my crew because after the crash they made a very good job and the bike was ready for the afternoon’s session”.


Free Practices:

1 Pedrosa (1’43.017)
2 Capirossi (1’43.023)
3 Rossi (1’43.090)
4 Stoner (1’43.099)
5 De Angelis (1’43.233)
6 Vermeulen (1’43.368)
7 Nakano (1’43.442)
8 Toseland (1’43.479)
9 Hayden (1’43.614)
10 Edwards (1’43.668)
11 Dovizioso (1’43.707)
12 De Puniet (1’43.742)
13 Lorenzo (1’43.961)
14 Hopkins (1’44.043)
15 Elias (1’44.610)
16 Melandri (1’44.649)
17 Guintoli (1’44.678)
18 West (1’44.865)