Pramac Racing duo Randy de Puniet and Loris Capirossi were dejected after another poor qualifying display at Indianapolis. The pair qualified 12th and 17th respectively and de Puniet was left to lament a failure to get the most out of new tyres.
“The first exit from the pits this afternoon went very well although we had a rear tyre with almost twenty laps and after thirty laps I recorded my best lap. Then in the final try, with new tyres, we were able to improve by only a few tenths of a second, and this just is not right. I expected more, but we often have difficulties with new tyres. I gave everything I had, tomorrow we will have to improve the bike, especially in long-distance curves. Our race pace is good, we aim to enter the top ten!”
Capirossi will start from the back of the grid and put that performance down to a similar problem. Attention now turns to the race and the Italian is already plotting how he can move forward tomorrow.
“I’m disappointed, the team worked very well and the bike was ready. But I was not able to exploit the soft rubber as I should and I was relegated to the rear of the classification. It would take only three tenths less and we were almost in top ten, but this is not enough. We had a good start to the afternoon session but the last few laps we have not just exploited as we should. We hope to redeem in the race tomorrow, even if the shoulder pain is strong and I hope it will not cause me complications in the final part of the race.”
