Consistency still the key for De Puniet

Pushing too hard in your home race can be a costly affair, as Jorge Lorenzo discovered to his dismay last time out at Jerez, so LCR Honda’s in-form Frenchman Randy de Puniet will be simply looking to collect as many points as realistically possible this weekend at the Grand Prix de France.

De Puniet finished last year’s championship in a disappointing 15th place overall, failing to finish five races and suffering a number of costly practice crashes along the way, but things have been much smoother thus far in 2009 and he currently sits comfortably inside the overall top ten.

Three good results thus far, including his best LCR Honda MotoGP result of fourth last time out in Jerez, mean that he will be confident of beating his 2008 ninth placed home race finish this weekend.

Nonetheless, he is still focused on simply keeping his bike rubber side down as he approaches the pressure-cooker environment of Le Mans, where thousands of French fans will be cheering him along.

“Racing in France is always something special for me and the fans are very warm. But I have to keep my focus and be as consistent as possible. This track is very interesting and I like all the stop-and-go braking points. My bike is quite competitive now but we will probably lack some acceleration at this track.”

Summarising his overall championship start he added, “The Jerez weekend was simply perfect for me and the team, but we have to keep our feet on the ground. The championship is very long and it won’t be easy, but it seems like we are going in the right direction. I am seventh overall in the provisional standings and I will keep trying to get as many points as possible.”