Kawasaki’s De Puniet Picks Up Points In Tough Jerez Weekend
Mar 26, 2007
Randy de Puniet scored Kawasaki’s only world championship points after bringing his Ninja ZX-RR home in a hard fought 13th place in today’s Spanish Grand Prix, which was won by Valentino Rossi (Yamaha) from home hero Dani Pedrosa (Honda) and watched by more than 132,000 spectators.
De Puniet’s fellow countryman, and Kawasaki teammate, Olivier Jacque, was unable to add to his points haul from the opening race in Qatar, finishing in a disappointing 18th place after struggling with traction problems throughout the 27-lap race.
Kawasaki’s expectations had been high coming into the second race of the season, with Racing Director, Ichiro Yoda, predicting a strong performance from his two riders, but these expectations had to be re-evaluated during the opening practice session on Friday, as de Puniet and Jacque encountered problems with their Ninja ZX-RR machines that hadn’t been apparent during the IRTA test at Jerez just one month ago.
The problems persisted throughout practice and qualifying on Saturday, but de Puniet saw a distinct improvement in the handling of his Ninja ZX-RR during this morning’s 25-minute warm-up session. Despite this improvement, both de Puniet and Jacque lined up for today’s Spanish Grand Prix knowing that today would be an exercise in damage limitation, rather than an opportunity to push hard for a top ten finish.
