Assen - FP1

De Puniet springs surprise in opening MotoGP Assen session

Thursday, 25 June 2009 motogp.com

Frenchman shocks with late 1’37.842 lap in first run-out for the Alice TT Assen.

LCR Honda rider Randy de Puniet sprang a surprise in the first MotoGP practice session for the Alice TT Assen, occupying the top spot on the timesheet with a 1’37.842 lap that came from out of nowhere late in the session.

For the majority of the hour-long run, Fiat Yamaha riders Valentino Rossi and Jorge Lorenzo had resumed their inter-team tussle by trading fastest laps, but eventually the duo were usurped by flying Frenchman De Puniet and then Lorenzo by Ducati Marlboro’s Casey Stoner –the rider with whom the leaders are tied on 106 points in the overall classification.

Just five-thousandths of a second divided De Puniet and Rossi, with Stoner a further three-hundredths down and Lorenzo only just unable to breach the 1’38 barrier. Trailing the early pacesetters were Repsol Honda’s Andrea Dovizioso & Dani Pedrosa and Monster Yamaha Tech 3 rider Colin Edwards, all under half-a-second down on De Puniet.

Adjusting to the track in the first practice run, many riders took a trip into the run-off areas in their quest to find the limit of their 800cc machinery. However, only one rider came off his bike, namely Scot Racing’s Yuki Takahashi. The Japanese rider suffered a highside that left him shaken but apparently uninjured.

1 14 Randy DE PUNIET FRA LCR Honda MotoGP Honda 1'37.842 284.135

“I’m very surprised, because even though my bike is good for this track I had a lot of problems with the soft front tyre, with the brakes and the electronics,” revealed the Frenchman in the immediate aftermath of his performance, also explaining that he had changed things up for the final burst.

“At the end I used a hard tyre for the last five laps. I’m satisfied with the bike for the first day. We can still improve with the electronics and myself, but it’s a good surprise for me and the team today.”

2 46 Valentino ROSSI ITA Fiat Yamaha Team Yamaha 1'37.847 293.000 0.00

"I'm happy about today's practice because I was fast from the start and I could ride the bike how I want. This is very important because it means that the modifications we made in Barcelona are working here too, even though this is a different type of track. Now we have one or two small things to fix in order to improve our overall performance and lap time further. Anyway, we're there, second by just a tiny bit and feeling good. It seems there is a doubt for the weather on Saturday which is a pity; of course I hope it's dry but if it's going to be a wet race then I hope we have the chance for one or two wet laps before the race in warm-up otherwise it will be quite hard."yamaha-racing.com 3 27 Casey STONER AUS Ducati Marlboro Team Ducati 1'37.877 291.105 0.035 “The first day’s been quite positive for us. We still need to improve the bike a lot but the lap times that we were capable of were a lot better than what we arrived to do. For tomorrow it’s put us in a good position,” said the Australian, before explaining some of the small difficulties that the team will aim to rectify to give him a more comfortable Friday feeling. “I still haven’t found the limit of the braking points and we still have some small improvements to make on the front end. Also the engine braking wasn’t working so well today. The bike should feel much better. “We did race distance and the tyre felt very good, so we have to look forward to the next two days. Maybe we’re one step behind after not being fully fit for the Barcelona test, but we’ll try and do what we have to do.”

4 99 Jorge LORENZO SPA Fiat Yamaha Team Yamaha 1'38.061 285.789 0.219 "Today wasn't perfect but we were still quite fast and I am happy enough. It hasn't been like Barcelona but anyway all the top riders are very close and we are only two tenths behind the lead. I expect tomorrow, with the riders all close like this, times will get even quicker so we need to check a few things and make some small improvements to our setting. Everyone seems to be expecting another race like we had in Barcelona but I don't think this is something that can happen every time! We just have to keep focused and do our best, and hopefully keep our target of getting on the podium again on Saturday." yamaha-racing.com

5 4 Andrea DOVIZIOSO ITA Repsol Honda Team Honda 1'38.092 289.544 0.250

“The final result from the session was pretty reasonable - 5th place and two tenths from the front is a decent start. We’ll be looking to make some more improvements tomorrow though because I’m not totally satisfied with how the practice went and we struggled a little to find a good feeling with the bike, in particular under braking and on corner entry. Now we’ll analyse the data and come up with a plan for tomorrow, possibly working with the weight distribution to improve the set-up. It was actually quite a difficult practice session for me because I wasn’t feeling too well, so I’ll get checked out at the Clinica Mobile and be ready for tomorrow.”
6 3 Dani PEDROSA SPA Repsol Honda Team Honda 1'38.194 293.318 0.352

“Riding felt much better today than it did at the last race in Barcelona which is a positive sign. Even without any painkilling injection I was able to ride with quite a good pace this afternoon so I’m very happy about that. Now, after riding, it doesn’t feel great and I have some pain, but that’s to be expected. With some ice on it and some rest tonight, I’m expecting to feel in good shape for tomorrow’s sessions. The feeling with the new chassis is good and I immediately felt much more comfortable than in Barcelona. I still need to learn more about the new chassis, but the initial feeling is positive, with improvements under braking and stability. Obviously, I need to do more laps to better understand its performance so we’ll continue with that tomorrow.”
7 5 Colin EDWARDS USA Monster Yamaha Tech 3 Yamaha 1'38.205 292.921 0.363

"It was a reasonable day without being spectacular. I've gone back to a longer wheelbase setting I haven't run since winter testing and it's similar to what Valentino (Rossi) and Jorge (Lorenzo) have been running. There are some advantages and some disadvantages but I've still got a small issue on the front like I had during the last race in Catalunya. I'm not able to turn into the corner as quickly as I'd like, and it feels like I'm waiting on the front before I can go through the corner. But the longer wheelbase has made it probably the best bike I've ever been on for the last part of this track. It's so stable in the fast sections and I'm able to make up a lot of time, so there's some good and some bad with it. We've just got to make some adjustments to make the bike turn a bit better and I feel confident that I can be pushing for another podium here. I love this track and have had some good results and would love to give Monster Yamaha Tech 3 a rostrum for all the h ard work everybody is putting in. That would be a massive confidence boost for me too with Laguna Seca coming up." yamaha-racing.com
8 7 Chris VERMEULEN AUS Rizla Suzuki MotoGP Suzuki 1'38.350 289.855 0.508
9 52 James TOSELAND GBR Monster Yamaha Tech 3 Yamaha 1'38.379 285.563 0.537

"It was good today and I enjoyed it out there. I know this track very well and that makes a massive difference when you come to a familiar track. All my knowledge of this place means I'm not thinking about where I need to be and I can just concentrate on the bike. I'm not too worried about being in ninth because the times are so close and I'm only half-a-second off first. I'm just pleased that I'm close to the front on the first day rather than being 1.1 or 1.2s off. My bike was a lot different today and we've moved more weight to the back. My bike has been set-up for a lot of grip, but as soon as the race tyre started to wear, I struggled and it's amazing how sensitive these bikes are to weight. We've gone a lot softer on the rear spring to get more load on the rear and I've got the grip and the drive now. I'd like to thank Mr Nakajima from Yamaha. I had a meeting with him on Sunday night in Barcelona and he has been in my garage all through that session giving me some help and I really appreciate his effort. This new setting feels quite a bit different because we've changed footpeg and handlebar position too, and while it doesn't feel as comfortable as my old setting, I'm definitely going round the track quicker and that's the main thing." yamaha-racing.com
10 65 Loris CAPIROSSI ITA Rizla Suzuki MotoGP Suzuki 1'38.429 291.891 0.587
11 15 Alex DE ANGELIS RSM San Carlo Honda Gresini Honda 1'38.495 285.487 0.653

“We did a good job at the Barcelona test and we have carried some of the positive things through to here. It’s nice to be just six tenths of a second from the top because it’s the first time we’ve managed to be so close all season and it shows we’re moving in the right direction. We still have a couple of little problems to fix but I was fast on a hard tyre as well today and that is encouraging. We have some ideas to try tomorrow, particularly in the first sector which is where I am losing most time at the moment, but I am positive because we are on the pace and still have room for improvement.”
12 69 Nicky HAYDEN USA Ducati Marlboro Team Ducati 1'38.928 290.869 1.086

“We had some different ideas to try here with the electronics and we ran them at the beginning of the session but I didn’t like them, so we went back to something similar to what we had in Barcelona, which enabled us to move up a bit. The gap to the front is closer than it’s been at other tracks but unfortunately a second around here is a lot of time and our position is not much of an improvement. There are some parts of the track that are pretty good and other sections where I’m kind of in between gears so we obviously need to look at the transmission tonight and put it all together a little better for tomorrow. We’ve got a lot of work to do but we’re used to that! I’m running the number 22 on my helmet this weekend for a close friend of our family back in America, Nick Cummins, who got hurt in a dirt-track event recently. His Dad used to sponsor me when I was younger and I just want him and his family to know that we’re with them and thinking about them, hoping things come right.”
13 36 Mika KALLIO FIN Pramac Racing Ducati 1'39.464 285.789 1.622

"It's not fair this way. In the first day of work in every race we start too behind compared to the riders that have already ridden in MotoGP on that track the year before. If we would have two hours at our disposal, like last season, things would be different, but we must take it the way it is. It seems simple but it's not easy to find the best lines to follow at each track. I don't want to be polemical but I wanted to make it clear: our potential, as we demonstrated in other occasions, is much better than the thirteenth place. Anyway compared to other first days of free practice things have gone better and this gives us a lot of trust. In addition I missed the possibility of another lap by a couple of seconds, otherwise I am convinced that we could have already improved our best lap time."
14 33 Marco MELANDRI ITA Hayate Racing Team Kawasaki 1'39.597 288.615 1.755
15 24 Toni ELIAS SPA San Carlo Honda Gresini Honda 1'39.642 291.340 1.800

“This has been a bad day for us. I don’t have any feeling on the front on the way into the corners and not enough rear traction on the way out. It has been the same story at every track we’ve been to. If there is a silver lining it’s that we have had bad first days at other circuits and been able to turn it around with a lot of hard work, so that is exactly what we intend to try and do tomorrow. Hopefully we can work something out and at least get more or less closer to where we should be. ”
16 59 Sete GIBERNAU SPA Grupo Francisco Hernando Ducati 1'40.151 278.494 2.309
17 72 Yuki TAKAHASHI JPN Scot Racing Team MotoGP Honda 1'40.185 289.156 2.343
18 88 Niccolo CANEPA ITA Pramac Racing Ducati 1'41.020 283.018 3.178

"As soon as I concluded free practice I went to the mobile clinic because I had a lot of pain in my back. It's been a couple of days that I have backache, but I am sure that this will not compromise my performances on track. Today we didn't start in the best way due to some technical problems that didn't allow us to do what we have planned in the first half of the session. We have to understand what happened to be at the best in the next two days of work. We have tried to solve the problems in the last minutes but at that time there wasn’t so much time left."
19 41 Gabor TALMACSI HUN Scot Racing Team MotoGP Honda 1'41.380 276.852 3.538