Misano, 5 Settembre: Qualifying for the Grand Prix of San Marino and Riviera di Rimini was run in sunny conditions today with ambience temperature of 28°C and the LCR Honda MotoGP racer Randy De Puniet made solid progress despite the injured left ankle ending the day 9th overall. 

After having achieved the 4th quickest time in this morning second free session at the 4.226Km race track, the Frenchman riding the Honda RC212V no. 14 set consistent and fast lap times throughout the 60-minute session and rode his machine to the third row with a best lap time of 1’35.554 on lap 21 of 29. Tomorrow’s 28-lap race will get underway at 14:00 local time with Rossi, Pedrosa and Lorenzo on the front row.

De Puniet – 9th – 1’35.554

De Puniet – 9th: “Well… I am quite satisfied because we improved our machine set up winning 1.7 seconds in this morning free session. My lap time is quite fast and I could shave some further tenths at the end of the qualifying but found some traffic. By the way I am close to the fifth fastest and I am pleased with this result because one month ago I was at the hospital for my left ankle fracture. We are back to the middle group where we should be. Hopefully if we could take a good start tomorrow we will be able to fight for another positive result. We still have to fine-tune the machine and adjust a few things in the warm up but I like this track and things are going in the right direction”.