Losail, 8 March: LCR Honda MotoGP rider Randy De Puniet had a brilliant night at Losail race track ending the MotoGP’s first ever- floodlit qualifying session in 5th place. The Frenchman aboard the Michelin-shod Honda RC212V nr. 14 worked hard with his crew to solve a lack of front end grip in both sessions, even with these problems he managed to be the first Honda on the grid. Despite a crash in the evening free session, De Puniet circulated the “desert” circuit 40 times during the two sessions clocking his quickest time of 1’54.818.

The track surface dropped to 15° this evening with all the riders making their tyres choices for tomorrows 22-lap night event which will start at 23:00 local time. Today’s frontrunner Jorge Lorenzo topped the board with a 1’53.927 lap followed by Toseland and Edwards.

De Puniet: “Today’s track conditions were better than yesterday but it was a long day for me and the team. In the free session I lost the front and crashed but my Team made a excellent work and the bike was ready for the qualifying. Firstly I went out on used tyre with the bike nr. 1: the setting was different but the lap times were consistent and fast. I came in to fit a new tyre but could not finish the run because of some technical problems. So I decided to swap on bike nr. 2 and the feeling was pretty good. We started to test the q-tyres and my pace was faster than last week testing days. On my last qualifying lap I came upon Elias who stopped my fast lap and decided to slow down. I feel quite satisfied but the feeling on race tyres could be better: we will work it out in tomorrows warm-up session”.

Qualifying Practice:

1 Lorenzo (Yamaha) - 1’53.927
2 Toseland (Yamaha) - 1'54.182
3 Edwards (Yamaha) - 1’54.499
4 Stoner (Ducati) - 1’54.733
5 De Puniet (Honda) - 1’54.818
6 Hayden (Honda) - 1’54.880
7 Rossi (Yamaha) - 1’55.133
8 Pedorsa (Honda) - 1’55.170
9 Dovizioso (Honda) - 1’55.185
10 Hopkins (Kawasaki) - 1’55.263
11 Vermeulen (Suzuki) - 1’55.540
12 De Angelis (Honda) - 1’55.692
13 Capirossi (Suzuki) - 1’56.070
14 Elias (Ducati) - 1’56.251
15 Nakano (Honda) - 1’56.434
16 Melandri (Ducati) - 1’56.730
17 Guintoli (Ducati) - 1’57.198
18 West (Kawasaki) - 1’57.445