Motegi, 26 September: Hot, rain and high humidity made for energy-sapping conditions in today’s free practice for the Japanese Grand Prix at the Motegi Circuit which will be celebrating its 10th anniversary of GP racing this week end. LCR Honda racer Randy de Puniet completed the two sessions in 10th overall despite the small fracture of the right wrist.

After this morning first free session in the wet, the Frenchman aboard the Michelin-shod Honda RC212V, completed 25 laps in the afternoon session on dry surface clocking his fastest lap time of 1’49.149. Randy and the LCR squad worked to fine tune the base set-up testing some rear tyres in the last part of the afternoon session and the 27-year-old could ride as he would like despite the ache of the right wrist.

De Puniet – 10th: “Obviously it was a difficult day for everybody as we had only one session in the dry. In the beginning of the afternoon session there were some water patches on the track and we took some time to “feel” the surface. After that we found a good base set-up but we still have to adjust the chassis and the engine mapping for tomorrow. We had two long runs in the last part of the afternoon session and the rear tyres worked well. I feel confident for tomorrow’s qualifying session even if my wrist is not at 100%. Anyway I understood my limit today and with some pain killers I can easily ride as I would like”.


Free Practice:

1 Stoner (148.121)
2 Pedrosa (1’48.194)
3 Rossi (1’48.510)
4 Dovizioso (1’48.770)
5 Capirossi (1’48.779)
6 Guintoli (1’48.794)
7 Hayden (1’48.800)
8 Melandri (1’48.945)
9 Elias (1’48.974)
10 De Puniet (1’49.149)
11 Nakano (1’49.190)
12 Hopkins (1’49.197)
13 Edwards (1’49.344)
14 Toseland (1’49.424)
15 Lorenzo (1’49.505)
16 Vermeulen (1’49.664)
17 West (1’50.131)
18 De Angelis (1’50.158)
19 Akiyoshi (1’50.879)