Motegi, 26 April: after yesterdays qualifying cancellation due to the bead weather, LCR Honda MotoGP racer Randy De Puniet made a good start from the 16th place for the 24-lap race at Twin Ring Motegi race track getting the 11th position overall. The second round of the season, which saw Lorenzo on the top of the timesheets, started today at 15:00 local time and was held in dry conditions although a heavily wet 40-minute warm up session this morning.

The Frenchman aboard the Honda RC212V nr. 14 did a good start from the last row and immediately started to set his rhythm catching the top ten group. With only 18 laps in the dry last Friday, the 28-year-old missed some rear traction in the last part of the race and Vermeulen overtook him when he was in 10th place. Now the LCR Honda MotoGP team will move to Spain for the third round of the season at Jerez de la Frontera.

De Puniet – 11th

De Puniet – 11th: “It was a very hard race starting from the last row and I lost some time behind Sete. After 6 laps I finally passed him and started to set my pace getting the 9th place. At that time Kallio was behind me but he overtook me on lap 14th. After that I tried to catch Toseland but my rear traction was not very good as we had only 18 laps in the dry on Friday and the machine was not as we expected. I struggled in the left corners entries and I probably made a small mistake changing the gear in the two last laps and Vermeulen easily passed me.
It’s a pretty positive result considering my position on the grid and I am looking forward to racing in Jerez to improve my machine set up in the dry”.