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De Puniet: “The bike is working

like it should”

It was a challenging day for Aragon’s technicians, who had to grapple with a blackout in the afternoon that ultimately caused the cancellation of the premier class’ second free-practice session. In the morning session, Randy De Puniet registered the sixth-best time and was first among all the Ducatis. Loris Capirossi finished with the 17th-best time in his first outing at the Motorland circuit.

Randy De Puniet:

“It’s a shame that we couldn’t go on track in the afternoon, as the morning session went very well. For a long time I’ve looked for such a good feeling with the bike; it’s strange, considering how differently things went at Misano. I’m satisfied. The bike is working like it should, and I want to repeat my performance tomorrow and Sunday.”

Loris Capirossi:

“It’s my first time at this circuit, and I must say that the track is beautiful, but difficult. This morning I tried to ride as much as possible, and unfortunately, this afternoon we were stuck in the garage. I’m optimistic anyway. The time that I did this morning shouldn’t be considered because I was trying to understand the track. I’m sure that I’ll go better tomorrow.”

Barberá sits twelfth after day one

Barberá suffered the setback of an electrical fault on his bike in the morning session, and having been limited to just thirteen laps he was looking forward to making progress in the afternoon session. However the untimely cancellation of FP2 left him twelfth on the time sheets, 1.7 seconds off the top, but with every confidence of a major step forward tomorrow.

Héctor Barberá:

"It was a strange day because with the cancellation of the second session you feel like you've been cut short. Even though I didn't do many laps this morning it was a productive session and the few laps I did were good ones. I was only four tenths off seventh place and I am not worried by our position today because with more track time I am sure we would have improved. I am enjoying myself a lot on the bike here - it suits my riding style and the Ducati, so I just want to keep working hard tomorrow and that's it. We had planned some set-up changes for this afternoon so we'll try those tomorrow and I am sure they'll be good."

Lorenzo on the pace at Motorland

Team mate Ben Spies was also quick to find a good direction for his YZR-M1. The Texan rose to third using the softer tyres, only dropping in the time sheets to 11th as the rest of the field switched to faster rubber. The results leave the team optimistic for a strong performance from both riders in tomorrow in qualifying, after they participate in an extended morning session planned to compensate for the shortened first day.

Jorge Lorenzo:
“This morning we started in a good direction, finishing second just four tenths slower than Dani who was top. It’s too early to make too many conclusions because the track is too dirty so tomorrow will be the real day to see who is fastest. We are very disappointed to not be able to make the second start, we have so many things we wanted to try but at least we have an extra half an hour tomorrow to take profit from.”

Ben Spies:
“This morning was actually quite a good session for us; we were up to third position and then we opted not to change tyres and work on the set up. It seems everyone else tried the harder tyre in the end which worked a lot better so we’re looking forward to using that. We picked which set up we are going to move forward on so the end result of the session was definitely not what the bike is capable of. Tomorrow should be good. I’m annoyed about this afternoon, it’s no one persons fault but it’s frustrating.”