All posts tagged randy de puniet
Colin Edwards returning to World Superbikes?
It looks like Colin Edwards doesn’t want to retire at the end of this MotoGP season and still wants to ride, but as he’s kind of getting long in the tooth for the very youngish MotoGP grid, and despite some good performances including a 3rd place podium at Silverstone a week after collarbone surgery, the 37-year old Texan could make a return to World Superbikes next year and try to take on oldies, but goldies Superbike leaders Carlos Checa (38) and Max Biaggi (40).
Edwards was poised to make the switch last season and was negotiating with Ducati Xerox until the Italian manufacturer decided to pull out their factory effort, while this time the American is in talks with the BMW Motorrad team, even though there may be other options as he revealed to GPWeek.
While the highly popular Edwards hopes to stay on with Yamaha Tech3 for another year, team owner Herve Poncharal has been inundated with requests from riders to take over Edwards M1. Current Moto2 points leader Stefan Bradl has been eyed by Yamaha’s head honcho Lin Jarvis very early on (unless the German rider ends up on Honda and with an all German team under Lucio Cecchinello’s watch) which could be an option as Yamaha would directly foot Bradl’s contract. English rider Bradley Smith could make the vertical move from Poncharal’s Moto2 team and team up with Cal Crutchlow which would make it popular with British fans and the BBC, as could Eugene Laverty.
The Northern Irishman had talks with the French manager at Brno, after losing his 2012 WSBK ride when Yamaha made their shock pullout announcement and is recorded as saying he’s “optimistic” about a MotoGP ride. Randy de Puniet is also rumored to make the switch to World Superbikes, and he’s always been on Poncharal’s wishlist, with the manager’s eye on the marketing appeal of a French rider in a French team to pull in more sponsors.
Randy de Puniet: "I'm not going to a CRT team nor to Moto2
To the more casual MotoGP fan, Randy de Puniet’s performances this season have been more than sub par, even if everyone initally expected that his riding style would suit the Ducati, but it may also be do to the fact that the only one rider has been able to constantly wring out something from that temperamental machine and he’s not even on it this year, be it that de Puniet has just had some really rotten luck this season.
De Puniet wants to stay in MotoGP, but will Pramac’s Paolo Campinoti want to keep him and will he want to continue paying the French rider’s handsome salary? De Puniet’s manager, Eric Mahe is currently making the rounds of the other satellite teams, but at the present there are not that many options open, however one thing is clear in de Puniet’s mind, that he’s not going to a Moto2 or a CRT team and he’s not be going to World Superbikes (he’s been linked to Kawasaki) unless he’s got a very competitive ride, he’d rather stay at home.
“If I go to SBKs it will be to ride in front, not in 8th or 9th. Otherwise I’ll stay at home waiting to be called in as a replacement rider, but what is crystal clear is that I will not ride for a CRT or in Moto2.”
Source | depuniet.com via motosblog.fr
Loris Capirossi and Randy de Puniet still carrying injuries
The Brno GP will be another tough weekend for Pramac Ducati team. Their garage will still look like a clinic for the walking wounded, because both Loris Capirossi and Randy de Puniet are still carrying previous injuries that will no doubt hamper their performances in the Czech Republic, and with another two races (Indy and Misano) in the next three weeks, their physical situation won’t have time to improve.
Capirossi, who should finally get around in announcing whether he’ll be retiring at the end of this season, has still persistant shoulder problems that he picked up at Assen after a qualifying crash that ruled him out of both the Mugello and Sachsenring rounds, but he was able to ride at Laguna Seca despite now admitting that he’ll need shoulder surgery.
“Unfortunately, the shoulder problem is persisting. The doctor said I should undergo surgery, but I’ll only consider that after the championship. For now I’m undergoing therapy every day. For Brno I hope to continue improving my physical condition,” said the feisty MotoGP veteran. “I’ve rested during this two-week break, which I really needed. I want to ride well and to finally have a good result. The Czech track is one of my favorites, so hopefully I’ll manage that.”
Team mate de Puniet isn’t in much better shape. The French rider who is rumored to make the move to World Superbikes next year, suffered a crash during the Laguna Seca qualifying session picking up fractures to two of his vertebrae that ruled him out of the race, however he’s now confirmed that he didn’t sustain any pelvic fractures, but still has persistant pain.
Continue reading: Loris Capirossi and Randy de Puniet still carrying injuries
Randy de Puniet heading to World Superbikes?
When Randy de Puniet climbed on board the Ducati Desmosedici for the first tests everyone was saying how well his loose riding style seemed suited for the beast from Borgo Panigale; which statistically has overwhelmed more riders than we can count (including a certain 9 times World Champion), but even the French rider hasn’t gelled with the machine.
De Puniet has crashed out five times in nine races so far this season (he and Marco Simoncelli are gunning for that dubious record) his previous injuries have hampered him and now he’s picked up a more serious one at Laguna Seca, but it seems that the Pramac Ducati rider may not be in MotoGP next season and may be heading to new and ‘greener’ pastures.
According to the lowdown from our French cousins at Motosblog, de Puniet has been offered a Kawasaki to ride in the World Superbikes championship in lieu of the constantly injured Chris Vermeulen. De Puniet debuted in MotoGP in 2006 with Kawasaki, spending two seasons with them and his best result was a 2nd place in 2007 at a very wet Motegi.
Whether de Puniet will go to WSBK’s remains to be seen but judging from the results that MotoGP refugees have been having in the series (Checa, Biaggi, Melandri) it wouldn’t be such a bad idea to think about it.
Randy de Puniet suffers vertebrae fracture - will try to ride at Laguna Seca
Pramac Ducati’s garage will look like a clinic for the walking wounded when they start warm-up practice at Laguna Seca.
Randy de Puniet who has had a horrid season so far with the Ducati GP11 (he’s finished 4 races out of 9), suffered an early session qualifying crash at turn 5 and despite getting up and limping away from the incident it was immediately suspected that he had sustained some sort of fracture and follow up tests have unfortunately confirmed it.
The French rider has been diagnosed with a fracture of the transverse process at L3 and L4 on the right side and and has a suspected fracture of the pelvis on the right side, and despite these injuries, he has been given permission to try to test out his fitness during warm-up practice and then he’ll decide if he can hold up for the long 32 lap race.
Continue reading: Randy de Puniet suffers vertebrae fracture - will try to ride at Laguna Seca
Pramac Ducati talks about Mugello test
Yesterday’s MotoGP test at the Mugello didn’t leave Pramac Ducati’s Randy de Puniet very satisfied, despite the fact that with his best time of 1:49.384, he was almost one second faster than his best lap during the actual race. The French rider, who many thought could master the Ducati due to his rather loose and aggressive riding style is currently only 17th in the standings and yesterday compared his current Desmosedici chassis against the updated ‘step 1’ version.
Here’s what De Puniet after the test, “I turned a lot today, after yesterday’s race there was a lot problems. At the end I can’t be satisfied, the others riders are always faster than me.We made some progress on the bike used in this weekend, but not enough”.
Sylvain Guintoli who is to be Loris Capirossi’s replacement rider in case the Italian can’t be ready in time for the Sachsenring round, got reacquainted with the Ducati GP11; his last time on a Ducati prototype was back in 2008. The WSBK rider ended his day three seconds slower than Randy de Puniet and five seconds off pace from Casey Stoner, and just slightly faster than Moto2 rider Andrea Iannone who put in a few laps to get a feel of what it’s like to ride a MotoGP machine and even ran off track at the San Donato on his first lap out.
Sylvain Guintoli to sub for Loris Capirossi at Sachsenring?
With Loris Capirossi out of action after breaking a couple of ribs and picking up a distorted shoulder after his highside crash during qualifying at Assen and is expected to miss at least the upcoming Sachsenring GP, Pramac Ducati will need a replacement rider and the choice seems to have fallen on Sylvain Guintoli, who will be getting a private test on the GP11 before the Sachsenring GP, July 17th.
Guintoli is former MotoGP rider who raced for the Pramac team back in 2008 and currently rides in the World Superbike championship with the Effenbert Liberty Ducati squad, and took a third place podium during race 1 at Miller Motorsports Park at the end of May.
The two French riders were once team mates in d’Equipe de France Vitesse, and Randy de Puniet when he heard that his fellow country man will be fielded next to him said: “It’ll be fun to get together after 10 years when we were in the SCRAB team, and it will be quite nice for him, although he’ll have 4 races between GP and Superbikes. He’ll also give a look and a new opinion on this bike.”
Source | motosblog.fr
Randy de Puniet to race at Silverstone
There was some doubt whether Pramac Ducati’s Randy de Puniet could take part in this upcoming race at Silverstone after he was taken out by Hiroshi Aoyama at the Catalunya GP (no race direction summons for this Gresini rider) and suffered what he believed was ligament damage to his ankle.
After undergoing scans and ligament damage ruled out, the French rider has been cleared to race, but will have to grit his teeth because his ankle is still sore and he admits that he’ll not be 100% fit when he’ll take to track Friday morning.
“I must say that I didn’t need this ankle injury. I tried to relax the last couple of days, and fortunately, my doctors visit ruled out ligament damage. It’s a shame because I did well at Silverstone, especially in qualifying. I hope that although my physical condition is not 100%, I can repeat that performance this weekend.”
Last season De Puniet qualified in the second spot on Silverstone’s front row, and he finished the race in sixthplace, but he was riding a Honda for LCR.
Pramac Ducati to switch to Honda in 2012?
Between Paris Hilton escorted aound the paddock and pitlane and her Tweets with “I love MotoGP”, Marco Simoncelli’s body guards in mufti (who had their ‘15 minutes of fame’ when they were shown to world on TV), the riders not wanting to go to Japan, the rumors why Dani Pedrosa didn’t race, why Colin Edwards wanted to, and other tidbits from the weekend’s races at Catalunya another rumor surfaced at Montmelò, but this was strictly more racing oriented.
Apparently Pramac Racing who has been running Ducati Desmosedici’s since 2005, is thinking of dropping the Italian manufacturer at the end of season and lease Honda’s new 2012 prototype, and the Tuscany based team is also thinking of down sizing the team to a sole rider, which won’t make Carmelo Ezpeleta jump for joy.
Both Randy de Puniet and Loris Capirossi have struggled so far this season with GP11 (as have the factory riders). But with Capirex seriously thinking of hanging up his lid at the end of the year (we should hear about his decision during the Mugello GP) putting de Puniet back on a Honda and concentrating all their efforts on just one rider, could be a step in the right direction towards improving their situation.
And Ducati? They probably won’t be wringing their hands over the loss, Aspar Martinez wants a second Ducati to field and it seems that the Cardion AB Motoracing team also wants another Ducati, because they too are thinking of expanding their team to a two rider effort.
Randy de Puniet and his Ducati Diavel
Randy de Puniet’s weekend at Le Mans wasn’t what he expected, first he got love tapped in the shoulder by Casey Stoner and hauled in front of the Race Direction to get a talking to for obstructing the Australian rider and then a few hours later crashed out before the end of lap one.
The only consolation prize was that the French rider finally took delivery of his Ducati Diavel. Apparently de Puniet was blown away by the looks and performance of Ducati’s new cruiser (for want of a better term to describe it) that he had to have one.
Here’s Thierry Mouterde of Ducati West Europe and Pascal Verrières of Pramac, giving him the keys to the bike.
It looks like Lauren Vickers won’t be riding pillion with her boyfriend as it doesn’t have a passenger seat, but since the girl is expert rider (she owns an R6 and does track time) she’ll probably steal the keys.
Source | motorbiker.org and motoservices.com
Casey Stoner fined € 5000 for warm-up incident (w/video)
Casey Stoner has been fined € 5000 by the Le Mans Race Direction after punching Randy de Puniet on the left shoulder during this morning’s warm-up practice.
The Pramac Ducati rider inadvertently moved across Stoner’s racing line after supposedly adjusting the brake lever on his Ducati just a few seconds before. De Puniet was not sanctioned for his actions.
Video of the incident between Stoner and De Puniet after the jump and which you can see before Dorna finds out and yanks it off.
Continue reading: Casey Stoner fined € 5000 for warm-up incident (w/video)
Randy de Puniet to skip Estoril test
Randy de Puniet finished 10th in yesterday’s race at Estoril, but it was a real struggle for the French rider, who suffered some pretty bad leg pain, so much pain that he’s decided to skip today’s important MotoGP test to find out why.
De Puniet was one of the many riders that underwent surgery during long break between the Jerez and Estoril GP’s. He had a screw removed from his left knee that was inserted after breaking his leg at the Sachsenring last year and was causing him some lingering pain and discomfort while riding.
“I’m partly happy,” said de Puniet. “Before the start of the race, if I knew I’d finish tenth, I’d have celebrated the result this weekend. But I don’t know what happened with my knee. It hurt very badly in the race, and I didn’t have enough strength in my legs. I had X-rays earlier this week, but I don’t know how my ligaments are. I hope it’s not anything serious, but tomorrow I will return home for a check-up.”
“As for the bike, we’ll try to fix the problems with the front. I’m happy for the six points earned, but without the pain in my knee, my result would undoubtedly have been better. We must work to find the same feeling glimpsed at Losail and Jerez.”
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