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2009-06-25 Randy de Puniet surprises at Assen - rider claims
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 Randy de Puniet was the surprise of the first day of free practice in Assen, as he set fastest time of the day, 0.005 seconds in front of Valentino Rossi, who spent most of the session in first spot. Casey Stoner set fantastic 3rd time, 0.03 seconds of the time set by Rossi, while Jorge Lorenzo set 4th time, 0.2 seconds from Rossi. Andrea Dovizioso was 5th, in front of recovering team-mate Pedrosa. Read rider claims after first free practice at Assen.
Randy de Puniet - 1st:
I’m very surprised, because even though my bike is good for this track I had a lot of problems with the soft front tyre, with the brakes and the electronics. At the end I used a hard tyre for the last five laps. I’m satisfied with the bike for the first day. We can still improve with the electronics and myself, but it’s a good surprise for me and the team today. It will be difficult to keep this place, but I’ll be working hard tomorrow and Saturday. We’ve been trying for a top ten this season. Here I’m better than at some tracks, but the most important thing as always is to finish the race.
Valentino Rossi - 2nd:
I’m happy about today’s practice because I was fast from the start and I could ride the bike how I want. This is very important because it means that the modifications we made in Barcelona are working here too, even though this is a different type of track. Now we have one or two small things to fix in order to improve our overall performance and lap time further. Anyway, we’re there, second by just a tiny bit and feeling good. It seems there is a doubt for the weather on Saturday which is a pity; of course I hope it’s dry but if it’s going to be a wet race then I hope we have the chance for one or two wet laps before the race in warm-up otherwise it will be quite hard.
Casey Stoner - 3rd:
This afternoon went really well for us and we’ve started off where we left off in Catalunya, which is a great sign. Generally with this bike we’ve had to make a lot of changes from track to track and we usually have to spend the first session working really hard to adapt the set-up, but on this occasion it feels good out of the box. We tried a couple of things during the session but once we got onto the harder front tyre it all clicked into place and we could have gone a lot faster but I got held up on a couple of laps and then on my last lap I pushed the front a bit too hard and ran wide. We still have some improvements to make but generally speaking it is very positive to start out on the pace - especially at such a windy circuit, because usually we struggle in the wind.
Jorge Lorenzo - 4th:
Today wasn’t perfect but we were still quite fast and I am happy enough. It hasn’t been like Barcelona but anyway all the top riders are very close and we are only two tenths behind the lead. I expect tomorrow, with the riders all close like this, times will get even quicker so we need to check a few things and make some small improvements to our setting. Everyone seems to be expecting another race like we had in Barcelona but I don’t think this is something that can happen every time! We just have to keep focused and do our best, and hopefully keep our target of getting on the podium again on Saturday.
Chris Vermeulen - 8th:
It's been great weather at Assen for the first day of practice and it gave us a good whole hour in which we could get a lot of work done. The conditions were very consistent for the session and it gave us a good opportunity to get the bike working. We tried different geometry settings between both bikes and definitely found a good direction to head with that. The mechanics worked really hard to find the best set-up today and we also tried both types of tyre - front and rear - so we know what is also working well there. We have some ideas to help the bike work well tomorrow and hopefully it will be another dry day and we'll be able to go even quicker.
Loris Capirossi - 10th:
This first practice has been quite good for us today because I didn't have a lot of information from last year as I only did one session, so it felt quite new for me here on a Suzuki. The bike was working well and we only changed a few things during the practice. I did the whole session with one front tyre and at the end when I tried to push a bit harder it started to move a bit more, but it still felt good so I'm happy with that. Overall it has been a good first day and now I want to get straight back on the bike and make things even better!
Nicky Hayden – 12th:
We had some different ideas to try here with the electronics and we ran them at the beginning of the session but I didn’t like them, so we went back to something similar to what we had in Barcelona, which enabled us to move up a bit. The gap to the front is closer than it’s been at other tracks but unfortunately a second around here is a lot of time and our position is not much of an improvement. There are some parts of the track that are pretty good and other sections where I’m kind of in between gears so we obviously need to look at the transmission tonight and put it all together a little better for tomorrow. We’ve got a lot of work to do but we’re used to that! I’m running the number 22 on my helmet this weekend for a close friend of our family back in America, Nick Cummins, who got hurt in a dirt-track event recently. His Dad used to sponsor me when I was younger and I just want him and his family to know that we’re with them and thinking about them, hoping things come right.
Assen - FP1 times:
1. Randy De Puniet LCR Honda MotoGP 1.37.842
2. Valentino Rossi Fiat Yamaha Team 1.37.847
3. Casey Stoner Ducati Marlboro Team 1.37.877
4. Jorge Lorenzo Fiat Yamaha Team 1.38.061
5. Andrea Dovizioso Repsol Honda Team 1.38.092
6. Dani Pedrosa Repsol Honda Team 1.38.194
7. Colin Edwards Monster Yamaha Tech 3 1.38.205
8. Chris Vermeulen Rizla Suzuki MotoGP 1.38.350
9. James Toseland Monster Yamaha Tech 3 1.38.379
10. Loris Capirossi Rizla Suzuki MotoGP 1.38.429
11. Alex De Angelis San Carlo Honda Gresini 1.38.495
12. Hayden Nicky Ducati Marlboro Team 1.38.928
13. Mika Kallio Pramac Racing 1.39.464
14. Marco Melandri Hayate Racing Team 1.39.597
15. Toni Elias San Carlo Honda Gresini 1.39.642
16. Sete Gibernau Grupo Francisco Hernando 1.40.151
17. Yuki Takahashi Scot Racing Team MotoGP 1.40.185
18. Niccolo Canepa Pramac Racing 1.41.020
19. Gabor TALMACSI Scot Racing Team MotoGP 1.41.380
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