Indianapolis, 13 September 2008: The sun shined at Indianapolis Speedway race track today for final qualifying and the LCR Honda MotoGP Team racer Randy De Puniet qualified in 6th position for tomorrow’s 28-lap race. After yesterday’s torrential rain, blue skies and ambience temperature of 34°C welcomed the premier class riders today at the spectacular American circuit which hosts the 14th round of the calendar.

Yesterday, in full rain conditions, the Frenchman aboard the Michelin-shod Honda RC212V set the 12th quickest time of the day but today’s conditions were totally different and Randy had to start again his set-up work testing the bike in the dry. The 27-year-old was again a strong performer clocking his quickest lap time of 1’41.492 gaining the second row for the 8th time this season. Today’s poleman Rossi set his fastest lap time of 1’40.776 followed by Stoner and Lorenzo.

De Puniet – 6th: “I am very happy about my result because it’s not easy to find the right set-up on a new track. Yesterday we had both sessions in the wet and this morning the track surface was still damp. For the final qualifying the track was completely dry but I could easily ride as I would like. When I came out on race tyres my pace was consistently fast and I made a good job on qualifiers as well. This is a very positive result if we consider that I miss some power in the straight but thanks to the adjustments we did this morning I will start from the second row once again. Want to thank my crew and Michelin for their efforts. Starting from the 6th position will help me in case of heavy rain but I do not feel worried about the bad weather because we have got a good pace in both conditions”.

Qualifying Practice:

1 Rossi (1’40.776)
2 Stoner (1’40.860)
3 Lorenzo (1’41.177)
4 Hayden (1’41.271)
5 Spies (1’41.464)
6 De Puniet (1’41.492)
7 Dovizioso (1’41.744)
8 Pedrosa (1’41.754)
9 Elias (1’41.886)
10 Toseland (1’41.897)
11 Edwards (1’41.934)
12 De Angelis (1’41.969)
13 Capirossi (1’42.305)
14 Guintoli (1’42.405)
15 Vermeulen (1’42.551)
16 Hopkins (1’42.673)
17 Nakano (1’42.732)
18 Melandri (1’43.807)
19 West (1’43.931)