Pramac Racing Malaysian GP qualifying report

Fourth Row For Pramac Racing Riders At Sepang

Randy de Puniet

Photo by: Pramac Racing

Hot day at the Sepang International Circuit where the Pramac Racing riders have completed the qualifying session in eleventh and twelfth position. The Frenchman, De Puniet, finished in front of the Italian, Capirossi, by only one-tenth of a second. The two practice sessions have been really hard today for all the riders for the high temperature which exceeded 30 degrees with 60% of humidity. The track has reached during the qualifying session almost 50 degrees. Tomorrow the weather should be similar, but the rain around here is always around the corner. Start of the race at 4pm local time.

Marco Rigamonti – Randy De Puniet Track Engineer

“We hoped to increase the lap times with the soft tyres, but as it has happened during winter testing, we can not do the same step forward that the others do when switching tyres compound. However, the eleventh is not too bad and with the race pace we are not so bad. We will have to start good and remain with the group even though Randy is suffering at this moment in the hard braking points on this track and he will have to grit his teeth when all the riders will be together in the firsts laps.”

Randy De Puniet – Pramac Racing Team – 11th in 2’02.939

"I am a little disappointed because I was faster yesterday and today, despite several changes, we could not keep the same level. Compared to winter testing we are not too far away from the other riders and this is a good sign, but tomorrow will still be a complicated race. With the back of the bike I am quite comfortable, though now we will investigate further tomorrow something to help me during tomorrow’s race. It will be tough, it's hot, but we need another good result and we will give it all."

Loris Capirossi – Pramac Racing Team
- 12th in 2’03.077

"I am not happy today because we could be at least in the top ten. We tried a new solution because the track had deteriorated, but it did not go as hoped. So during the last attempt at the end we returned to this morning set-up and we were able to improve. Tomorrow we can have a good race because the race pace is good. Then everything will of course depend on the weather!”