POWER ELECTRONICS Aspar rider Randy de Puniet took the challenge to the prototypes at Phillip Island today, qualifying ahead of three of them and just 0.006 shy of another with a sensational lap of 1'31.667 on his ART machine. The Frenchman was easily the fastest CRT bike around the Australian track, impressing the crowd almost as much as local hero Casey Stoner, who delighted them with pole position after a dominant weekend so far. Tomorrow's race promises to go Australia's way too although the world's eyes will also be on the battle between Jorge Lorenzo and Dani Pedrosa, with Lorenzo looking to wrap up the World Championship title by finishing ahead of his Spanish compatriot.
De Puniet gave a warning of his stunning potential around this track with the seventh fastest lap of the final free practice this morning and he followed up with another lap seemingly beyond his means to seal a third row start against all the odds. Just three tenths and three grid places behind him is his team-mate Aleix Espargaró, who didn't make as strong a start to the weekend as Randy yesterday but has gradually upped his game today and establish himself as a threat to the Frenchman's CRT victory ambitions tomorrow.
9th Randy De Puniet 1.31.667 (23 vueltas): “I am really happy with the way things are going this weekend. We have been fast from the start and my feeling with the bike is great here. I am really enjoying myself and I hope this continues tomorrow through to the end of the race. We start from the third row, which is a great achievement for a CRT bike, having been seventh fastest this morning. I think we could have gone even faster in qualifying this afternoon but the conditions changed at the end of the session. Anyway I feel comfortable and confident. The objective is to hang on to the prototypes in the race and see what happens. I need to pull as many points back as possible on my team-mate but it will be tough because he is looking strong here too. Today was a great day; hopefully tomorrow is another one.”
12th Aleix Espargaró 1.31.990 (22 laps): “I am pleased with our performance today because we have improved a lot from yesterday. We were a long way off in the first couple of sessions in terms of lap times and feeling but the situation has been turned around by a lot of hard work. The bike feels how I want it to feel now and that is important, as is the fact that we set a consistent pace riding alone and using my own reference points. We didn't set a single lap as good as my team-mate but our main weapon tomorrow is our consistency. We have worked with the gearbox, the engine and the chassis here and pretty much everything we tried was positive.”
Power Electronics Aspar Press Release
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Source: http://www.zimbio.com/MotoGP/articles/6ghvq0zTXIq/Super+Randy+Qualifies+Ninth+Phillip+Island
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