Le Mans, 17 May 2008: LCR Honda MotoGP rider Randy De Puniet rode his Michelin-shod Honda RC212V to 12TH place today in the qualifying session at the 4.185m Le Mans circuit in readiness for the tomorrow’s 28-lap race.
Today’s both premier class sessions were dry with ambient temperature of 21°C even though weather forecast for tomorrow’s fifth round are still unsettled.
.
After this morning’s 7th position in the free practice, De Puniet worked on braking stability and tyres choice to improve his pace clocking his best lap time of 1’33.723 (on lap 18 of 26). The 27-year-old made good progress on race set-up showing his potential around the Bugatti Circuit ahead his national fans. Unfortunately the Frenchman was not able to take big advantage from the soft tyres but he feels confident for tomorrow. Today’s pole man Dani Pedrosa set the quickest lap time of 1’32.647.

De Puniet – 12th: “This morning was not so bad as we improved a lot the bike on race set-up and I lapped consistently fast. We started the afternoon session on qualifiers because of the incoming bad weather but my feeling was not good enough at the beginning. I was not enough aggressive. Then the feeling was much better but I am a bit disappointed for the fourth row. Anyway I feel confident for tomorrow’s race because my bike package is pretty good and we can ride with a good rhythm for the whole race”.


Qualifying Practice:

1 Pedrosa (132.647)
2 Edwards (1’32.774)
3 Stoner (1’32.994)
4 Rossi (1’33.157)
5 Lorenzo (1’33.269)
6 Hayden (1’33.286)
7 Toseland (1’33.396)
8 Vermeulen (1’33.440)
9 Hopkins (1’33.628)
10 Dovizioso (1’33.689)
11 Capirossi (1’33.707)
12 De Puniet (1’33.723)
13 Nakano (1’34.077)
14 Elias (1’34.561)
15 De Angelis (1’34.670)
16 Guintoli (1’34.747)
17 Melandri (1’35.081)
18 West (1’35.349)