theophil
02/12/2005, 08h52
Source: crash.net
With some sources having reported that Randy de Puniet was out of his depth on his MotoGP debut with Kawasaki at Valencia earlier this month, the Frenchman help calm any nerves within the team green camp with a competent performance during this week's Sepang test.
de Puniet's main task at his second test was to continue his transition from the 250cc class to the much faster and heavier MotoGP machine. The #17 made the most of this by completing a massive 183 laps, all but ten of them on the 2005 race version of the ZX-RR. Late on the final afternoon de Puniet also ran 10 laps on the 2006 prototype (lower pic).
Randy's best lap was a 2mins 4.27secs, which put him 11th out of the 13 riders present, and within 1.34secs of Nakano's best time on the 2006 machine. de Puniet was also 0.819secs inside Olivier Jacque's fastest race lap from September's Malaysian Grand Prix (Nakano was eliminated early in the race after being taken out by Sete Gibernau).
"I have a very positive feeling from this test because I found some good solutions with the set-up on the '05 model ZX-RR," stated Randy. "I did my best time on tyres that had done 12 laps and I'm sure I could have been faster on new tyres, but this was not my target at this test - the main job was to learn and understand the base set-up of the bike after coming from 250s.
"On day one I concentrated on adapting my riding style and then completed some testing of engine management and fuel injection set-ups, with the chance to run some consistent laps on the third day," he continued. "Coming from a 250 the weight, power and engine braking of a MotoGP machine is completely different, but I'm happy with my progress - I have a good feeling from both the bike and tyres."
"Randy's efforts at this test were very encouraging, he made a big impression with his consistent pace and also his technical feedback to the engineers, despite his lack of MotoGP experience," underlined team manager Harald Eckl. "He still has a lot to learn and understand, especially with things like engine braking, after coming from 250cc two strokes, but he is making very good progress."
With some sources having reported that Randy de Puniet was out of his depth on his MotoGP debut with Kawasaki at Valencia earlier this month, the Frenchman help calm any nerves within the team green camp with a competent performance during this week's Sepang test.
de Puniet's main task at his second test was to continue his transition from the 250cc class to the much faster and heavier MotoGP machine. The #17 made the most of this by completing a massive 183 laps, all but ten of them on the 2005 race version of the ZX-RR. Late on the final afternoon de Puniet also ran 10 laps on the 2006 prototype (lower pic).
Randy's best lap was a 2mins 4.27secs, which put him 11th out of the 13 riders present, and within 1.34secs of Nakano's best time on the 2006 machine. de Puniet was also 0.819secs inside Olivier Jacque's fastest race lap from September's Malaysian Grand Prix (Nakano was eliminated early in the race after being taken out by Sete Gibernau).
"I have a very positive feeling from this test because I found some good solutions with the set-up on the '05 model ZX-RR," stated Randy. "I did my best time on tyres that had done 12 laps and I'm sure I could have been faster on new tyres, but this was not my target at this test - the main job was to learn and understand the base set-up of the bike after coming from 250s.
"On day one I concentrated on adapting my riding style and then completed some testing of engine management and fuel injection set-ups, with the chance to run some consistent laps on the third day," he continued. "Coming from a 250 the weight, power and engine braking of a MotoGP machine is completely different, but I'm happy with my progress - I have a good feeling from both the bike and tyres."
"Randy's efforts at this test were very encouraging, he made a big impression with his consistent pace and also his technical feedback to the engineers, despite his lack of MotoGP experience," underlined team manager Harald Eckl. "He still has a lot to learn and understand, especially with things like engine braking, after coming from 250cc two strokes, but he is making very good progress."