De Puniet finds right balance with fifth fastest time

Randy De Puniet’s confidence on board the RC212V of the LCR Honda team grew further on the first day of the final pre-season Test in Qatar, as the Frenchman recorded the fifth best time of the 17 MotoGP riders.

Showing off the new livery that he will ride with in 2010, which includes the logo of title sponsor GIVI, De Puniet produced a best lap time of 1’56.588 on his 32nd of 54 turns as he carried out further developments on his bike.

Despite feeling slightly ill with stomach pain De Puniet still managed to place as the highest Honda in the opening session.

He said: “Well apart from the stomach pain I am very satisfied. When I arrived here two days ago I was okay but this morning (Thursday) I felt the first cramps, and it has not been easy to do my job in these conditions. Anyway when we left Sepang some weeks ago I knew that we had found a good base, and today my positive feeling has been confirmed. I lapped consistently fast both on hard and soft tyres and I think we can get a further improvement on soft ones. We will see tomorrow...”

The second day of the Test commences at 6pm local time on Friday.