Randy de Puniet - Photo Credit: Pramac Racing
Despite admitting in the build-up to this weekend's Malaysian GP that he doesn't enjoy the Sepang circuit, Randy de Puniet was in high spirits after the opening day's practice. The Frenchman was the quickest Ducati in eighth place which surprised him given the difficulties he was having during the day.
“I am satisfied with this first day of work. Honestly I am a little surprised with the result because I did not feel too well riding my bike, but to finish the first working day in eighth place is not so bad. We used soft tyres with many laps throughout the course of the afternoon session and for a couple of laps we tried new tyres with harder compound and things went well. We are in good shape for the weekend and hopefully I can get another good result like in Australia.”
Pramac Racing teammate Loris Capirossi showed flashes of pace throughout the day before finishing in 12th place, 0.436s behind De Puniet. The 38 year old was losing time in the final sector and knows the team need to increase their straight line speed to be competitive.
“It is not so bad today. The twelfth position is not great, this is for sure, but as the first day I can be satisfied. I tried the hard rubber in the front tyre and I really like, however, tomorrow we will study other ways to figure out how to increase the top speed at the moment because we are too slow. We will give it all to make a good weekend.”
