Sachsenring, 12 July 2008: LCR Honda MotoGP Team rider Randy De Puniet made solid progress today getting the sixth fastest time overall in the qualifying session for the Grand Prix of Deutschland that gets underway tomorrow at 14:00 local time.

After this morning damp free session, the weather improved for the 60-minutes afternoon qualifying session at the 3.671 km German track with ambience temperature of 20°C and the Frenchman aboard the Michelin-shod Honda RC212V posted his best lap time of 1’21.821 on lap 26 of 27 obtaining the second row for tomorrow’s 30-lap race.
De Puniet, like some other premier class riders, lost some track time this morning due to the slippery surface but then he found the correct set-up of his machine lapping consistently fast on race trim in the afternoon session.
Stoner set the fastest lap time (1’21.067) followed by Pedrosa and Edwards.

De Puniet – 6th: “I am quite satisfied today because we improved the bike set-up, then my pace on race trim is very competitive and I also gained a good lap time on qualifiers. I shaved six tenths on race tyres compared with yesterday and this is very important. This morning the track condition was not good for the bike set-up and we decided to stay in for 30 minutes. After we had two different set-up’s to compare and we chose the best one for the afternoon session. We could get the front row but I found Nakano in front of me during my fast lap and lost three tenths; I was a bit disappointed but this is racing and everybody tries to get the maximum on soft tyres. Tomorrow’s race will be very close and I have to do a very good start to stay with the first group”.


Qualifying Session:

1 Stoner (1’21.067)
2 Pedrosa (1’21.420)
3 Edwards (1’21.519)
4 Dovizioso (1’21.656)
5 Lorenzo (1’21.795)
6 De Puniet (1’21.821)
7 Rossi (1’21.845)
8 Hayden (1’21.876)
9 Nakano (1’21.920)
10 De Angelis (1’21.977)
11 Toseland (1’22.126)
12 Elias (1’22.256)
13 Capirossi (1’22.542)
14 Vermeulen (1’22.601)
15 Guintoli (1’22.938)
16 Melandri (1’23.131)
17 West (1’23.158)