MotoGP – Estoril Qualifying – Randy De Puniet: “What can I say? ... For our safety it was better this way"

Torrential rain and wind initially delayed the official practice for the Portuguese GP on the Estoril track with all the riders in the premier class stuck in the garage for obvious safety reasons given that the track was flooded in several places. Then at 14.30pm local time the Race Direction wisely decided to cancel the qualifications for all 3 categories. After the storm during yesterday morning's free practice and the pale sun emerging at the end of the afternoon, another downpour welcomed the MotoGP riders and teams on the second day of testing but the morning session took place regularly with the Team rider LCR Honda Randy de Puniet in 15th position. The starting grids of the 3 classes are therefore based on the combined times of the three free practice sessions so the Frenchman astride the RC212V will start from 8th place (thanks to his best time yesterday) for the 28 laps scheduled at 13pm: 00 local time.

De Puniet: "What can I say? … For our safety it was better this way because the conditions were really bad. This morning we saved a set of tires in case qualifying was less "wet" but in the end we achieved nothing. However, my fastest lap yesterday gives me the possibility of starting from the third row even if I could have done better if only yesterday I hadn't concentrated only on setting up for the race. But that's fine because our pace in the wet is good. Then if there were to be a dry race it would be a big question mark for everyone."

LCR