DE PUNIET AND WEST ON THE SECOND ROW AT SEPANG
Today's qualifying practice at Sepang ended with Kawasaki's
Randy de Puniet heading up the second row with his team mate,
Anthony West right behind him on the grid for tomorrow's Malaysian
Grand Prix.
In the afternoon's nail-biting session, the Frenchman crashed
out, rode his spare bike for much of the allocated hour, then
rode home his hastily-repaired, primary Ninja ZX-RR to fourth
place on the leader board in the very final moments. He clocked
his best qualifying time of 2'02.107 with a top speed of 296.5kmh,
just behind Marco Melandri who snatched the last place on
the front row in the closing seconds by the tiniest margin
of 0.163 seconds.
De Puniet began the day with another scorching free practice,
which saw him coming second on the results sheets with a time
of 2'02.534, just 0.243 behind Casey Stoner. Having notched
up such consistently good lap times on race tyres throughout
all sessions, de Puniet feels confident for tomorrow's 21-lap
race.
It was an electrifying session, which resulted in West's
best qualifying position yet in MotoGP. The 26-year-old Australian
enjoyed provisional pole after putting in his best lap time
of 2'02.202 on his first qualifying tyre. This was eventually
stolen from him but he maintained a front row spot until the
very last second, when Melandri and de Puniet pushed him back
to fifth in an exciting climax.
But West is positive: he, like his team mate, has been having
an excellent weekend at Sepang so far. The final practice
combined times clocked him as fifth fastest in the field of
riders and a long run on race tyres saw him show remarkable
consistency, culminating in a best time of 2'02.627.
Watching tomorrow's race will be the President of Kawasaki
Heavy Industries Ltd, Mr Tadaharu Ohashi, who is currently
visiting Malaysia on business, and the President of Kawasaki's
Consumer Products and Machinery Company, Mr Shinichi Tamba.
De Puniet and West will be particularly keen to do well in
front of the two men who have done so much in support of Kawasaki's
MotoGP project this year.
Randy de Puniet
#14 - 4th - Best Lap 2'02.107
"As in the past couple of races, I'd hoped for a better
position but I had a small crash early in the session and
had to use my second bike for quite a while after that. I
had a good feeling from it, although I prefer my other bike.
I used two different types of qualifying tyre and one of them
didn't work for me at all: it was impossible to finish a lap.
The other one was better and I used that on my normal bike
at the end, which got me this good lap time. It was so close
and I'm just two tenths of a second off pole. We have a good
base for tomorrow with the bike, and we've gone very fast
on race tyres all weekend, so we should be able to do well."
Anthony West
#13 - 5th - Best Lap 2'02.202
"It was good to be up the front for most of the qualifying
session and I was feeling really comfortable. We used two
different types of qualifiers and the two I didn't do so well
on are the ones which are usually the best at other circuits.
Here, it was the opposite way around. The first one I used
was really good but the others barely lasted a lap. I'm actually
quite disappointed I didn't stay on the front row but the
main thing is I know that with this set up, our race Bridgestones
and the good feeling I've got, it's not as if I've only been
on the pace for the one lap. So I'm pretty confident and we'll
see how it goes tomorrow. Everything's working really well
this weekend; it's nice."
Fiorenzo Fanali
West's Crew Chief
"Anthony's never ridden on this racetrack on a MotoGP
bike so, for him, it's been completely new and, from the first
practice session, we've been improving. This morning he did
many laps on a race tyre and was still getting better and
better times. He was in the top five so he's riding very well,
the bike's working brilliantly, and so are the tyres, so I
feel he can be strong tomorrow. He's always at his best in
the race too so, as he's starting from a good position, I'm
sure he can fight for a top finish."
1. Dani Pedrosa (SPA) Repsol Honda Team 2'01.877; 2. Casey
Stoner (AUS) Ducati Marlboro Team +0.041; 3. Marco Melandri
(ITA) Honda Gresini +0.067; 4. Randy De Puniet (FRA) Kawasaki
Racing Team +0.230; 5. Anthony West (AUS) Kawasaki Racing
Team +0.325; 6. Nicky Hayden (USA) Repsol Honda Team +0.348;
7. Chris Vermeulen (AUS) Rizla Suzuki MotoGP +0.424; 8. Toni
Elias (SPA) Honda Gresini +0.555; 9. Valentino Rossi (ITA)
Yamaha Factory Racing +0.589; 10. John Hopkins (USA) Rizla
Suzuki MotoGP +0.820
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