French rider Randy De Puniet set a surprise fastest time in practice here on Thursday, pipping championship leaders Valentino Rossi, Jorge Lorenzo and Casey Stoner at the line.
De Puniet’s LCR Honda clocked 1min 37.842sec on the first day of practice ahead of Saturday’s Assen TT Grand Prix, the seventh event of the season, putting him just ahead of the Italian multiple world champion, the Spaniard and the Australian.
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“I was really surprised to be in front. It’s the first time it’s happened to me in dry conditions,” said the 29-year-old who joined the Moto GP circuit in 2006 with Kawasaki before switching last year to Honda.
“But let’s not get too excited, it’s not Christmas. I’m not getting carried away and dreaming about victories.” AFP
Rossi, who has won eight world titles in all including five in Moto GP and one in 500cc, will be fighting for his 100th grand prix victory here on Saturday. Going into the race, the Italian is in equal first position in the rider’s championship with Lorenzo and Stoner - all three on 106 points.
De Puniet concentrated his work mainly on tyre testing and chassis set-up finding a competitive overall package thanks to the adjustments made at Montmeló track during the post-race day of testing. After a difficult beginning in the first part of the session, the 28-year-old riding the LCR RC212V no. 14 went straight to the top of the standing clocking his fastest lap time on lap 24 of 25.
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“It has been a big surprise for me!”, he said. “In the beginning of the session I was not pretty comfortable as I started on soft tyre and my front feeling was very bad: I had some movements and could not lap as I would like. Unfortunately the second bike set up was almost the same so we decided to go out on a harder front tyre. The feeling was much better but I made some small mistakes. I knew that my rhythm on this track could be faster and so I went back to the garage to swap on to the no. 1 bike which was set–up like the test in Barcelona. Thanks to some quick adjustments on the chassis geometry and suspension regulations I finally set the pace in the last 5 laps and this makes me very happy. However it is all very close up to the top so I need to stay focused”. Yahoo! Eurosports
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