Pramac Racing Czech GP Friday report

THIRTEENTH PLACE FOR RANDY DE PUNIET, FIFTEENTH FOR CAPIROSSI

Loris Capirossi, Pramac Racing Team

Photo by: Pramac Racing

The first two free practice sessions were completed at Brno, site of the eleventh Grand Prix of the world championship. Randy De Puniet posted the thirteenth-best time (1:58.454) upon returning to the track after missing the race at Laguna Seca. Using the new frame provided by the Ducati factory, the Frenchman used the afternoon session to lower his time by nearly five tenths compared to that of the morning. Loris Capirossi, still dealing with a painful shoulder, finished the day with the fifteenth-best time (1:58.573), just behind factory Ducati rider Nicky Hayden.

Marco Rigamonti - Randy De Puniet Track Engineer

“We compared the old frame with the new one, and Randy found the latest version from the mother company much more to his liking. He crashed while using the old one in the afternoon, and we were only able to gather limited useful information. The new one is notably better. Now we have to keep improving the bike; we have some ideas, and we’ll try to put them in practice tomorrow morning. Maybe we’ll use two bikes so that we can test different solutions.”

Randy De Puniet – Pramac Racing Rider – 13th best time in 1:58.454

“In the end, it was a bad day if I consider that my physical condition isn’t allowing me to be at 100%. We didn’t change many things between this morning and this afternoon. However, we did decide to see which of the two frames we have available to us could better reward our work. The new one gave us a somewhat better impression considering that with the other one, the one we used for the first part of the season, I lost the front and fell. I think and I hope that with the small changes we’ll try tomorrow, I’ll be able to reduce the gap to the riders who tend to be in the top ten.”

Loris Capirossi - Pramac Racing Rider – 15th best time in 1:58.573

“Compared to this morning, we’re more satisfied because we were able to solve some problems with the front. I’m able to ride better, but now we must concentrate on our work on the rear of the bike. I’m a realist. We have some ideas that we’ll try out tomorrow. We could take a nice step forward. We’re very close to the others, and although I’m not in my top form, I can improve upon today.”