Estoril, 11 April 2008: the LCR Honda MotoGP rider Randy De Puniet faced up his first day of practices at the windy Estoril track aboard the Michelin-shod Honda RC212V. The Frenchman, who can rely good experience at Portuguese track where he was successful three times in 250cc class, got the 9th position today clocking his quickest lap time of 1’39.332.

With changeable weather conditions due to the ocean winds, this morning free session was wet with track temperature of 15° whilst in the afternoon the temperature went up to 22° and De Puniet went around the windy track 42 times throughout the day working on the base set up of his machine. Today’s frontrunner Pedrosa set a quickest 1’38.507 lap time.

De Puniet – 9th: “It was a hard-working day for us but in the end we gathered many data to develop tomorrow. In this morning first session I took my track time to feel the bike and then we started to work on the base set up. It was not bad even tough we struggled a bit with the front-end. However we made a good work together with Michelin staff on tyres selection finding good rear grip which allowed me to ride consistently fast. In the middle of this afternoon session we had some small setting problems (braking stability and handling) but, after some adjustments, I came out and was able to improve my pace on race tyres”.

Free Practice 2:

1 Pedrosa (1’38.507)
2 Rossi (1’38.547)
3 Edwards (1’38.632)
4 Hayden (1’38.688)
5 Lorenzo (1’38.868)
6 Dovizioso (1’39.171)
7 Stoner (1’39.202)
8 Nakano (1’39.309)
9 De Puniet (1’39.332)
10 Hopkins (1’39.474)
11 Capirossi (1’39.591)
12 Vermeulen (1.39.946)
13 Toseland (1’40.055)
14 De Angelis (1’41.033)
15 Melandri (1’41.112)
16 West (1’41.572)
17 Guintoli (1’41.875)
18 Elias (1’43.262)