Monterey, 5 July: On a near perfect summer’s day LCR Honda MotoGP Team racer Randy De Puniet gained another top ten finish riding the Honda RC212V no. 14 in today’s U.S. Grand Prix at Laguna Seca. After rear grip problems which affected his position on the grid in yesterday’s qualifying (14th) the Frenchman put in a maximum effort over the 32-lap race and got the 9th  place overall at the Californian track which hosted the eight round of the season.   

Randy took his start from the fourth row ending the first lap in 13th position and started to lap consistently fast on this demanding track though his overall package was not as good as he expected. The race was won by Pedrosa ahead 46.000 spectators followed by Rossi and Lorenzo. Now Randy and the LCR squad will move back to Europe for German GP on the 19th of July.

De Puniet – 9th

De Puniet – 9th: “I am quite satisfied as it was hard to expect a better result starting from the fourth row on this “up-and-down” track. I struggled with grip problems since Friday and we tried to adjust our issues but at the end the bike was not at 100%. My start was not brilliant and found some traffic in the first laps but after that my rhythm was good enough to pass a few riders. We decided to go for a softer rear tyre which was a good choice for the beginning of the race but grip from the rear tyre dropped at ten laps to go. This is another productive result for me and the Team as I am holding the 9th place in the championship”.

Race:

1  Pedrosa
2  Rossi
3  Lorenzo
4  Stoner
5  Hayden
6  Elias
7  Edwards
8  Vermeulen
9  De Puniet
10 Melandri
11 De Angelis
12 Canepa
Dovizioso out
Gibernau out
Capirossi out
Talmacsi out
Toseland out