Portuguese GP: LCR Honda qualifying report

PORTUGUESE GP QUALIFYUNG CANCELLED: DE PUNIET TAKES THE 8TH SPOT ON THE GRID

Estoril, 29 October: heavy rains and wind disrupted the Portuguese Grand Prix qualifying practice at Estoril track with all premier class riders choosing to sit out the session for safety reasons and also because of the limited returns of riding in such conditions so Race Direction decided to cancel the 3-class qualifying practices. After yesterdays' storm in the morning and the bright sunshine emerged at the end of the afternoon session, torrential rain welcomed the MotoGP riders this morning but they attempted to tackle the 4.128km race track with LCR Honda Team racer Randy de Puniet posting the 15th lap time.

The starting grids for each race have been based on the combined times from the three practice sessions so the Frenchman riding the RC212V will start from the 8th spot on the grid (thanks to his yesterdays fastest lap time) for the 28-lap premier class race that will get underway at 13.00 local time.

De Puniet -- 8th overall

De Puniet : "What can I say?... It was not safe for us to ride in these conditions so this is the best solution. This morning we saved one set of tyres ahead the qualifying thinking that the conditions could be a bit better but at the end we could not take this advantage. Anyway my yesterday's lap time gave me the chance to start from the third row. We could have done a lot better but we focused on race set up not on the lap time. We are pleased with our race pace in the wet but if the race will be dry we will be all in the same difficult situation".

-source: lcr