Brno, 16 August 2008: Qualifying for the Czech Repulic Grand Prix was run in wet conditions today with ambience temperature of 12°C and the LCR Honda MotoGP racer Randy De Puniet made solid progress ending the day 7th and will start from the third row for tomorrow’s 22-lap race.

After yesterday’s sunny opening day when De Puniet managed fourteenth in the dry because of some front feeling problems, this morning free session was hit by persistent rain and the hour long qualifying session was ridden on a full wet surface with Stoner on the top of the timesheets with a best lap time of 2’11.657. The Frenchman aboard the Michelin-shod Honda RC212V clocked his fastest lap time of 2’14.535 in the last lap of the session (8th lap) then he decided to come in as the rain became heavier.

De Puniet – 7th: “This is a good result for me and the Team because we were not very fast in these conditions especially this morning. We made some adjustments to the bike setting and the feeling with the tyres improved a lot in the afternoon but was impossible to do better than this. At the end I lost the second row but I do not feel worried about that. I am the first Michelin rider on the grid in these conditions and this is positive. The weather forecast for tomorrow is for dry conditions so we must use the 20-minute warm up session to find the right front tyre for the race”.

Qualifying Practice:

1 Stoner 2’11.657
2 Rossi 2’12.846
3 Hopkins 2’12.959
4 Vermeulen 2’13.002
5 De Angelis 2’13.352
6 West 2’14.064
7 De Puniet 2’14.535
8 Nakano 2’14.718
9 Capirossi 2’14.805
10 Guintoli 2’14.861
11 Melandri 2’15.880
12 Pedrosa 2’16.032
13 Elias 2’16.510
14 Dovizioso 2’17.632
15 Edwards 2’20.074

Not Qualified: Toseland 2’23.303 / Lorenzo 2’23.701