Le Mans, 17 May: LCR Honda MotoGP rider Randy De Puniet rode his Honda RC212V to the 14th place overall at Le Mans historic circuit today starting from the fourth row ahead his national fans. Despite showing good form during free practice, De Puniet was unable to translate that to a hot flying lap on soft tyres during yesterday’s qualifying session but the 28-year-old was confident before the start of the 28-lap race as his overall race package was pretty good.

The French GP got underway at 14:00 local time with cloudy skies as the racetrack has been hit by poor rain throughout the morning. The premier class riders started on wet tyres but after few laps they came in to swap the bikes as the track surface started to dry up. De Puniet switched on his “dry” machine on lap 7 but when he rejoined the race he could not lap as he likes and managed to finish the race in 14th position. Lorenzo climbed up the podium followed by Melandri and Pedrosa. 

De Puniet – 14th
“I am very disappointed for the Team and for the fans because I made a very bad race today. At the beginning, on rain tyres, I was not comfortable with the front end. Then I switched on the bike set up with slick tyres but I made a mistake on turn no. 4 loosing some seconds. After that I struggled I lot and could not race as I expected. We started the week end with the right package and I aimed to get a better result. However I got two points and I am 10th in the standing. Now I have to forget this bad week end and must focus for Mugello race”.

Race results
1  Lorenzo
2  Melandri
3  Pedrosa
4  Dovizioso
5  Stoner
6  Vermeulen
7  Edwards
8  Capirossi
9  Toseland
10 Elias
11 De Angelis
12 Hayden
13 Takahashi
14 De Puniet
15 Canepa
16 Rossi
 
OUT: Kallio, Gibernau