Pramac qualifying report

FOURTH AND FIFTH ROW FOR RANDY DE PUNIET AND LORIS CAPIROSSI IN THE GRAND PRIX OF QATAR

After the promising results of yesterday there is a bit of disappointment inside the box of the Pramac Racing Team. Randy De Puniet, who had finished in ninth place yesterday, had to settle for eleventh place, which earned him the fourth row in the Qatar Grand Prix scheduled for tomorrow evening at 10pm local time. The Frenchman, however, has reported a good race pace and remains confident. His teammate was not able to regain the confidence of yesterday fighting with gritted teeth and managed to locate in fifth row three positions behind the French rider.

Marco Rigamonti - Randy De Puniet Track Engineer

"We'll see how the track conditions will be tomorrow because even today, with the track temperature a few degrees higher, the bike had more grip and all the riders have improved significantly. The pace is certainly very good, too bad only in the last three rounds where Randy has had some complications with the front tire. However we remain very confident for tomorrow 's race."

Randy De Puniet - Pramac Racing rider - 11th best lap time in 1 '55.656

"I am a bit 'disappointed with qualifying today. We had a good strategy in mind having three sets of soft tires available, but at the end of the session when it was time to make the fast lap time something went wrong. During the session we have made some changes on the front to have more confidence in corners and this will allow me to be consistent in the race tomorrow. Unfortunately the last time out the front tire was not performing as in previous trials and I was limited. A minimum target point for me was the third row, but unfortunately we did not make it. Tomorrow will be very important to start well so we can stick to the leading group from the firsts laps."

Loris Capirossi - Pramac Racing rider - 14th best lap time in 1 '56.323

"With today 's higher temperatures we have lost the feeling found yesterday. We had some complications with the tires and the front of the bike. When I come out of the corners I can not open the throttle as I want because the bike slides a bit. We will work hard to improve. Tomorrow will be important to start in the clean side of the track because where we do not usually pass there is a little bit of sand and the bike slide a bit. Anyway as always I will give my best."

-source: pramac