Mugello, 30 May: LCR Honda MotoGP rider Randy De Puniet rode his Honda RC212V to 5th place today in the qualifying session at the 5.245 km Mugello circuit in readiness for the tomorrow’s 23-lap race that gets underway at 14:00 local time. Today’s both premier class sessions were dry with ambient temperature of 25°C while the asphalt rose up to 42°. 

After this morning’s 10th position in the free practice, De Puniet was in sparkling form and clocked his best lap time of 1’49.499 (on lap 25 of 26) less than six tenths off the quickest lap of the day gaining the second row for the second time this year. The 28-year-old made good progress on race set-up showing his potential around the Italian track where he already experienced the podium in 250cc class. Today’s poleman Lorenzo set the quickest lap time of 1’48.987 followed by Stoner and Capirossi.

De Puniet – 5th – 1’49.499

De Puniet – 5th: “I am very happy and this qualifying is almost perfect. This morning we have been working a lot in suspensions and geometry set up. Honestly we did not achieve all what we are expecting. Basically all we have tested was not a real improvement but at the end it helped us to understand which way to go. We still have some issues about the rear grip and will try to fix some adjustments in tomorrow’s warm up. Our pace is acceptable and I made my life easier thanks to the second row for tomorrow’s start. If we take a good start following the front riders for some laps we could get a positive result here”.