DE PUNIET BRILLIANT SIXTH AT SUNNY ESTORIL

Estoril, 03 October: after yesterday’s sunny opening day, the temperature was still high (25°C) at Estoril track today for the 800cc qualifying session which saw Yamaha rider Lorenzo on the top of the timesheets with a 1’36.214 lap time. The LCR Honda MotoGP racer Randy De Puniet made solid progress and rode his Honda RC212V to the 6th fastest time on lap 27 of 29 at the 4.182 Km Portuguese race track showing that he is finally in good form after the injury to his ankle two months ago.

The Frenchman, who qualified 11th in this morning second free session, continued to search for the optimum setting from his machine in the afternoon session recording a quickest lap time of 1’37.448. De Puniet will start from the second row for tomorrows 28-lap race that gets underway at 13:00 local time and is hoping to get a top-eight finish at the track where he already experienced the podium in the 250cc class.

De Puniet – 6th– 1’37.448

De Puniet – 6th: "After the long break it’s nice to come back and if you get the sixth fastest time is even better! We worked pretty well to solve the rear grip problems because yesterday I struggled a lot to open the throttle in the corners exit and we slid too quickly out of the curves. We did make some small improvements which we need to adjust tomorrow but it has been a very positive first part of the week end so far. After much effort due to my injury I finally could push making a stunning flying lap in the qualifying".

Qualifying Practice:

1 Lorenzo (1’36.214)
2 Rossi (1’36.464)
3 Stoner (1'36.528)
4 Pedrosa (1’36.702)
5 Edwards (1’37.142)
6 De Puniet (1’37.448)
7 Capirossi (1’37.489)
8 Dovizioso (1’37.541)
9 Hayden (1’37.654)
10 Kallio (1’37.813)
11 De Angelis (1’37.822)
12 Toseland (1’37.823)
13 Elias (1’37.911)
14 Canepa (1’38.042)
15 Vermeulen (1’38.342)
16 Melandri (1’38.538)
17 Talmacsi (1’39.320)

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