After a mediocre start, de Puniet was at the back of the field by the end of the first lap, but fought back and managed to move up in the rankings throughout the race, finishing in eighth place. It was a great end to a promising race that provides hope for the rest of the season.
Meanwhile Capirossi encountered unexpected problems and was forced to retire at lap sixteen due to extreme front tyre wear. The Italian rider will look for revenge in seven days at his home track at Misano Adriatico.
Randy De Puniet:
"I'm happy, this is my best race of the season! I had a poor start when Loris touched me and I lost at least three positions, otherwise I could stay with the group and probably I could have fought for a better position. But its OK, our pace, like I said yesterday, has been steady until the end and this allowed me to overtake many riders in the second half of the race. I'm satisfied with how things went today, the team worked very well and after a difficult start of the season we all deserve a good result. We needed it and I look forward to continue at this level next week at Misano."
Loris Capirossi:
"From the fourth lap the bike didn’t respond as I wanted. I kept losing the front tire and risked falling at every turn. At one point I could no longer manage the bike and I was forced to retire. When I returned to the box we noticed that the front tire was really worn. I'm so sorry that this happened in this race because the whole weekend we didn’t have problems like this. Not much else to add, we are going to look ahead and concentrate on Misano, where we hope to get a good result in front of our fans."
Pramac Racing Team press release
