Pramac Racing TT Assen Qualifying Report

CAPIREX TO MISS ASSEN TT. DE PUNIET WILL START FROM FOURTH ROW

Loris Capirossi won’t take part in the season’s seventh Grand Prix, at Assen. The Pramac Racing Team rider was the victim of a bad crash in the hard-fought final minutes of qualifying; the medical exams he underwent after the fall (in which the Italian was hit by his own bike)—first in the mobile clinic, then in the hospital in Assen—excluded serious injuries, but a dislocated right shoulder and injured rib cartilage will force the veteran to sit out the race. His best time was 1:37.130, for 15th place. The atmosphere is calmer on the other side of the team’s garage. Randy De Puniet seems to have overcome the difficulties with bike setup that he has experienced lately. The Frenchman finished qualifying with the tenth-best time (1:36.435), and tomorrow he’ll start from the fourth row.

Loris Capirossi, Pramac Racing Team

Photo by: Pramac Racing

Marco Rigamonti - Randy De Puniet’s Track Engineer

“The feeling with the bike definitely isn’t the same as what we had in Qatar and at Jerez, but this week the problems that Randy had with the bike have diminished significantly. This aspect is very important for all of us, as we have to find the confidence we had at the beginning of the season. The results once again highlight the problems with the Ducati; we’re just behind Hayden and ahead of Rossi. The weather will be very important tomorrow. We’re not yet going like we’d like in the wet, so we hope it will be dry when we’re on the track.”

Randy De Puniet - Pramac Racing Team – 10th, 1'36.435

“I’ll start from the tenth spot—too bad because I only missed the third row by a few tenths. Right now, it’s impossible to do better, so we’ll have to work to try and improve the feeling with the bike; anyway, it has improved compared to the last few races, especially Silverstone. Tomorrow I’ll have to fight in order to finish the race in this position, but I’ll try not to push too hard and instead just take advantage of any opportunities I get. My goal is to reduce the gap to the other satellite Ducatis and to steadily lessen the problems with the bike.”

Loris Capirossi - Pramac Racing Team – 15th, 1'37.130

“There’s not much to say. It’s not much fun to be crushed by a bike at high speed. I’m feeling better now, although I’m sorry to miss tomorrow’s race. I crashed as I was at my best; I could have dropped my time, but the problem in left-hand corners, which we had already experienced in the morning’s free-practice session, caused me to lose control. Tomorrow I’ll go back to Monte Carlo, and in two days I’ll undergo some more checks on my physical condition.”

by: pramac racing