Sachsenring, 18 July: LCR Honda MotoGP Team racer Randy De Puniet made solid progress today getting the sixth fastest time overall in the fully wet qualifying session for the Grand Prix of Deutschland that gets underway tomorrow at 14:00 local time.
 
As predicted by the weather forecast, cloudy skies and heavy rain welcomed the 800cc riders this morning at the 3.671 km German track for the second day of practices which saw de Puniet 7th overall in this morning second free session. The 60-minutes afternoon qualifying session was conducted in the wet with ambience temperature of 14°C (16°C on the asphalt) and the Frenchman riding the Honda RC212V no. 14 posted his best lap time of 1’34.564 (on lap 12 of 25) obtaining the second row for tomorrow’s 30-lap race despite he crashed twice during the practice. Rossi set the fastest lap time (1’32.520) followed by Lorenzo and Stoner.

De Puniet -  6th 1’34.564

De Puniet –6th: “We have got a good grid position and I am quite satisfied but it has not been easy as wet session is always a gamble. Everybody push to find the limit but sometimes we push too much and we crash. I was very fast in the first run (12 laps) and my machine wet set up was almost perfect. Unfortunately I crashed on turn seven because I opened the throttle too much and the asphalt was like an ice-skating rink! After that I went out on my second bike but it took me some time to find the right pace. When I started to push I had some engine brake  issues and at two laps to go I went out in the gravel. The guys must work hard to repair both bikes for tomorrow but I feel confident as we made a good performance in both conditions”.

Qualifying Session:


1  Rossi (1’32.520)
2  Lorenzo (1’33.160)
3  Stoner (1’33.759)
4  Hayden (1’34.404)
5  De Angelis (1’34.490)
6  De Puniet (1’34.564)
7  Edwards (1’34.607)
8  Pedrosa (1’34.725)
9  Capirossi (1’34.741)
10 Kallio (1’34.771)
11 Dovizioso (1’34.892)
12 Vermeulen (1’34.937)
13 Melandri (1’34.938)
14 Toseland (1’35.005)
15 Canepa (1’36.012)
16 Talmacsi (1’36.055)
17 Elias (1’36.531)