Pramac Racing Czech GP qualifying report

FiFTH AND SIXTH ROW FOR DE PUNIET AND CAPIROSSI

Randy De Puniet, Pramac Racing Team

Photo by: Pramac Racing

The starting grid for the Brno Grand Prix was finalized during this afternoon’s qualifying session. Randy De Puniet turned in the fifteenth-best time (1:58.889). The Frenchman’s final lap had been going well until he was forced to exit the track to avoid his teammate, Loris Capirossi. The Italian finished the session in sixteenth place (1:58.938), and he’ll start from the sixth row.

Marco Rigamonti - Randy De Puniet Track Engineer

“After this morning’s rain, the track had much less grip, so we encountered many difficulties. We had in mind to try a certain things this morning, but the weather conditions didn’t help. At the end of qualifying, Randy was doing a good lap, and it’s a shame that his teammate Capirossi got in the way and forced him to brake hard, causing our rider to go off the track. He was lowering his time by a second, and he could have had a good time.”

Randy De Puniet – Pramac Racing Rider – 15th best time in 1:58.889

“I’m very disappointed with how things went. I’ll start from the fifth row, and I expected a better position. Unfortunately, the asphalt lost a lot of grip, so it was difficult to go fast. We had tried some different solutions this morning, but we returned to the standard setting. Things got better, but not much. I was doing a good time on my last lap, when I was behind Simoncelli and Valentino, then Capirossi got in front of me right in the last corner, and to avoid hitting him, I was forced to brake hard, which changed my line and caused me to crash. I’m pretty angry and disappointed my Loris’ maneuver, because I could have had a time that was good enough for at least tenth place.”

Loris Capirossi - Pilota Pramac Racing Team – 16th best time in 1:58.938

“I’m pretty disappointed with today. Yesterday we had done some good things, even if we weren’t able to reach the second group. Then the track conditions got worse due to this morning’s rain, which made the asphalt lose grip, and we were having a hard time. I hoped to go much better, but we weren’t able to be consistent or even to improve on yesterday’s time. I’m still optimistic for tomorrow. We can have a solid race and make up some positions. As for Randy, I’m sorry for what happened, but I saw him far back and I didn’t think I would cause any problem. These things can happen, but I’ll definitely be more careful next time.”