Pramac Racing Japan Friday report

First Laps On The Desmosedici For Damian Cudlin. De Puniet Thirteenth

Randy De Puniet, Pramac Racing Team

Photo by: Bridgestone Corporation

Day of studying for the replacement of Loris Capirossi for the Japanese Grand Prix, Damian Cudlin. The Australian rider, who made his debut with a MotoGP at Motegi, has ridden a total of 36 laps managing to constantly improve. From the morning free session to the afternoon, in fact, he lowered his time by almost two seconds. Even if he still far from the fastest riders, results don’t look bad at all for a rookie. De Puniet finished in thirteenth place even if this wasn’t one of the best first days of practice. The French rider was not able to find the right bike set-up and he will try again tomorrow to lower the gap from the firsts. Rain is expected tomorrow in the morning, while the track is expected to return dry in the afternoon for qualifying session which will begin at 2pm local.

Marco Rigamonti – Randy De Puniet Track Engineer

“We started with the same set up of Aragon and the track here, being very different, gave us some problems. We tried to work with the harder tyre, thinking that once changed to the soft one things would improve, but unfortunately it did not go well. Tomorrow we will, weather permitting, focus on the development of the bike in order to give more grip to Randy.”

Randy De Puniet – Pramac Racing Team – 13th in 1’48.374

"It was not an easy first day, I am not happy with the sitting of the bike, specially to stop the bike with the braking stability very low. We tried to improve in the afternoon but it wasn’t quite enough. The rear grip with the soft tyre isn’t so good and we need to work very hard for tomorrow. Also with front and rear suspension we need to make some important modifications. It doesn’t look easy right now, but we will not give up and we will try to lower our lap times by at least half a second to be competitive in the race."

Damian Cudlin – Pramac Racing Team
- 19th in 1’51.349

"I think basically the first day went ok, we couldn’t expect to be faster. It’s the first time I step on this bike and the first time I ride in Motegi. There are many things to learn in a short amount of time. We improve at every lap, but I know that the closer we get to the other riders the harder it will be to improve. I just want to concentrate to improve; I am enjoying it a lot at the moment. We don’t need to make many changes to the bike right now, I can guarantee that if we leave it like this we will lower our lap times tomorrow morning anyway. Let’s hope to have a good Saturday to try to be with some of the other riders during the race."