De Puniet content to extend top ten run

Randy de Puniet’s 2009 campaign continues to be a stark contrast to his crash-affected 2008 season, and the Frenchman kept his LCR Honda satellite RC212V upright again on Sunday – unlike several of his MotoGP rivals, with only 12 riders crossing the finishing line at Laguna Seca.

De Puniet was the ninth of those 12 to do so and whilst it was not a spectacular result he now has six top tens from eight races to his name this year.

Indeed, with less than half the season gone he is already just three points away from matching his total for the entire 2008 campaign and is certainly doing exactly the kind of job required of him by team boss Lucio Cecchinello at present.

Looking back over Sunday’s 32-lap race, which he commenced from 14th on the grid, De Puniet remarked, “I am quite satisfied as it was hard to expect a better result starting from the fifth row on this ‘up-and-down’ track. I struggled with grip problems from Friday and we tried to make some adjustments but in the end the bike was not at 100%. My start was not brilliant and I hit some traffic in the first few laps, but after that my rhythm was good enough to pass a few riders.”

He went on to say, “We decided to go for a softer rear tyre which was a good choice for the beginning of the race, but grip from the rear tyre dropped with ten laps to go. Still, this is another productive result for me and the team as I am sitting in ninth place in the championship.”