Randy de Puniet is excited at his prospects for the rest of the weekend after a strong first day at the United States Grand Prix.
The Frenchman was the fastest Ducati rider in Friday's second free practice session, outpacing both factory machines, to finish eighth fastest. De Puniet completed the entire session on a single rear tyre and believes he will be closer to the front when new tyres are fitted for qualifying.
“A good first day of work. We made it to improve by seventh tenths of a second compare to this morning and this give us good expectations for the next couple of days of work. I really enjoyed today the track, we have tried many solutions but as we kept the same rear tyre during the session we couldn't make it to improve more in the last few laps. I am confident.”
De Puniet's track engineer Marco Rigamonti was pleased with the progress made during the day, giving them a chance to improve further tomorrow.
“We have made some good step forward this afternoon. Randy was happy about the modifications we have made and tomorrow we can concentrate on maintaining a more stable rhythm. This is a difficult track and to make a perfect lap each time isn't so simple. Randy has basically used always the same rear tyre and this didn't also allow us to improve the best lap time at the end of the session, but as for today we can be happy with what we got.”
Pramac Racing teammate Loris Capirossi found life much tougher but revealed he was still suffering from the injury caused by his crash at Assen. The Italian will continue for the rest of the weekend and is expecting a difficult challenge as he races through the pain barrier.
“In the afternoon it was probably more difficult because I only took one painkiller to try to understand which were my real physical conditions. Sincerely I found more complications as I couldn't make it to ride as in the first free practice session. Tomorrow it will surely not be easy, but I am here to ride and give the maximum to climb the classification.”
