The first two free-practice sessions have been completed at the Sachsenring, site of the ninth Grand Prix in the MotoGP series. Loris Capirossi didn’t take to the track in the afternoon, due to severe pain in his right shoulder: after the morning session, the Italian gave up his spot to Sylvain Guintoli, who had tested the Desmosedici during the official test at Mugello. The Frenchman stopped the clock at 1:25.964,while his compatriot, Randy De Puniet, registered the eighth-best time (1:23.037).
Marco Rigamonti - Randy De Puniet Track Engineer
“It seems that the bike works well at this circuit. We mainly worked on the electronics setup, and we also compared the old frame with the new one. The difference between the two doesn’t seem big, but we should really try it on a track where the bike has problems. Surprisingly, we didn’t have many today. We’ll work on our consistency for the race, also trying to sneak a few more tenths off the time, which makes a difference when times are so close.”
Randy De Puniet
“I’m pretty satisfied with this first day, as it’s been since Jerez that we haven’t had such a good position in the results. In the afternoon, we worked even better than we did in the morning. The feeling with the bike has improved, and we also finally had some good weather. Tomorrow we’ll work on other areas, and we hope that the whole weekend will be positive. For me, it’s a pleasure to be in the group of riders who are currently going faster than the rest.”
Sylvain Guintoli
“Apart from my lap time, I can’t complain. The goal for this weekend is to improve session by session in order to find the right feeling with the bike heading into the race. I had some difficulties, of course, but I’m happy to be here and to be racing in MotoGP. It was fun, and I’m sure that tomorrow I’ll improve my time and position.”
Free practice one results available here, free practice two results available here.
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