De Puniet working hard to resolve front-end issues

After a slow start to the Cardion ab Grand Prix Ceske republiky weekend Frenchman Randy de Puniet improved his time from the morning session significantly, knocking over a second off his lap time to end up with a best lap of 1´59.405 in the afternoon.

However two strange crashes in that afternoon session put an end to his work on the track for the day just after having set his best time and he was left in fourteenth position overall.

Randy de Puniet - fourteenth

`It has been a very difficult start because straight from the off this morning we were struggling for front-end feel. In the first session I destroyed the front tyre and was not able to lap as I would like. Then in the afternoon I tried to change my riding style and the bike set-up, but crashed after just four laps - it was a very strange crash! After that I jumped onto the second bike but crashed again after a few laps. I lost a lot of track time and did only 11 laps in total. The overall package is good but the main problem is the front feeling. We tried to fix it but nothing worked properly. It has been a tough first day of practices but I know that the crew is working hard to solve the problem for Saturday´s sessions.´