Sachsenring, 17 July: The 800cc premier class riders hit Europe this week end for the ninth round of the season at the Sachsenring race track and the opening day of free practice for Sunday’s Deutschland Grand Prix was conducted on damp surface as torrential rain hit the German track at 14:00 local time.

LCR Honda MotoGP rider Randy De Puniet clocked his fastest lap time of 1’23.133 (less than 4 tenths off the fastest lap time of the day) in the last minutes of the afternoon session (4th overall) chasing the correct set-up for tomorrow’s qualifying session. The Frenchman aboard the Honda RC212V no. 14 made 36 laps throughout the session lapping consistently fast on race trim at the 3.671 km race track. Stoner topped the timesheets with a 1’22.779 quickest lap time.

De Puniet – 4th – 1’23.133

De Puniet – 4th: “Well… it was a good first session and I am quite satisfied about our performance. After the storm we started in the wet as everybody but since the first laps I was very comfortable with the bike which we need to improve a little bit. Once the surface started to dry up I came out on soft tyre but I have been very careful at the beginning; when my lap times became more consistent we decided to continue on soft tyres. I made a 23-lap run (Sunday’s race is 30 laps!)  with a good pace especially in the end on used tyres so I am pretty confident for tomorrow’s qualifying. Basically we found the correct overall package and we just have to fine-tune the chassis and the suspensions”. 

Free Practices:

1  Stoner (1’22.779)
2  Pedrosa (1’23.034)
3  Rossi (1’23.088)
4  De Puniet (1’23.133)
5  De Angelis (1’23.282)
6  Edwards (1’23.295)
7  Elias (1’23.351)
8  Hayden (1’23.367)
9  Dovizioso (1’23.370)
10 Melandri (1’23.466)
11 Lorenzo (1’23.496)
12 Capirossi (1’23.705)
13 Kallio (1’24.090)
14 Toseland (1’24.317)
15 Canepa (1’24.908)
16 Vermeulen (1’25.161)
17 Talmacsi (1’25.416)