Qatari GP: Honda LCR qualifying report

DE PUNIET FIRST HONDA RIDER ON FIRST FLOODLIT QUALIFYING IN QATAR

LCR Honda MotoGP rider Randy De Puniet had a brilliant night at Losail race track ending the MotoGP's first ever- floodlit qualifying session in 5th place. The Frenchman aboard the Michelin-shod Honda RC212V nr. 14 worked hard with his crew to solve a lack of front end grip in both sessions, even with these problems he managed to be the first Honda on the grid. Despite a crash in the evening free session, De Puniet circulated the "desert" circuit 40 times during the two sessions clocking his quickest time of 1'54.818.

The track surface dropped to 15 this evening with all the riders making their tyres choices for tomorrows 22-lap night event which will start at 23:00 local time. Today's frontrunner Jorge Lorenzo topped the board with a 1'53.927 lap followed by Toseland and Edwards.

De Puniet: "Today's track conditions were better than yesterday but it was a long day for me and the team. In the free session I lost the front and crashed but my Team made a excellent work and the bike was ready for the qualifying. Firstly I went out on used tyre with the bike nr. 1: the setting was different but the lap times were consistent and fast. I came in to fit a new tyre but could not finish the run because of some technical problems. So I decided to swap on bike nr. 2 and the feeling was pretty good. We started to test the q-tyres and my pace was faster than last week testing days. On my last qualifying lap I came upon Elias who stopped my fast lap and decided to slow down. I feel quite satisfied but the feeling on race tyres could be better: we will work it out in tomorrows warm-up session".

-credit: lcr.mc