Qatari GP: Honda LCR preview

LIGHTS ON FOR SEASON-OPENING RACE IN QATAR

One week after the first floodlit night testing at Losail circuit, the premier class riders return to the same venue for the season-opening GP of Qatar. The LCR Honda MotoGP Team rider Randy De Puniet has been in fine form for the whole winter getting impressive lap times on this track some days ago.

De Puniet looks to be comfortable with his Michelin-shod Honda RC212V at the "desert" circuit thanks to the good job he made together with LCR Team, HRC technicians and Michelin staff.

De Puniet: "The winter tests have been very productive for me and the whole team. The Honda/Michelin package is working well and my results were quite positive - especially my pace on race tyres. I'm looking forward to racing in Qatar because I prefer these new conditions when the temperature is cooler and I don't have any special problems with the shadows on the track. We found a good base set-up and didn't change many things during the last test session so we focused on tyre testing with good results. I feel confident for the first race of the season and it'll be a great show with the new lightning system".

Christophe Bourguignon (Chief Engineer): "When we tested here last week the bike set-up was acceptable so we focused on tyres testing. Following our requests Michelin did a lot of work at home and they came back here with new solutions to test. Our aim is to improve in the long distance because with this temperature the tyre life is totally different".

-credit: lcr.mc