After setting the 5th fastest time in FP3, things were looking good for Pramac Ducati‘s Randy De Puniet at the second round of the season in Jerez. After a poor start, the Frenchman fell to 13th but managed to make up 6 places before a fall on Lap 13 in which he could not get his bike restarted. A visibly frustrated De Puniet wasn’t holding back after the race.
“I’m disappointed and angry about what happened.” he said
“I had a bad start, I was relegated in the last positions. Then I started pushing, I was doing well, until I found major problems with the front wheel. I tried to change the mapping, but I was not able to do it. I found it extremely difficult to manage the bike and when I slipped I couldn’t manage to restart the bike. Now I only have to think about doing well at Estoril, because this beginning of the championship hasn’t been good at all.”
Loris Capirossi too had a difficult race. After a steady start, he was able to keep up with the same group that De Puniet was with, but suffered some pain in his shoulder which hampered his progress. Aswell as that, the veteran Italian had a faulty spark plug, so was forced to cling on until the end. He eventually finished in 11th.
“I see today as a positive day even if I finished so far from the first positions as I had to ride with a a broken spark plug. We could have done better, we understood some things, we will try to put them in practice for Estoril. The break arrive at the right time, in fact, I’ll go to Monaco tomorrow for a consultation with the head of the hospital. I hope I will be able to begin soon therapy on the shoulder to face the next race in the best possible way”. he said.
