MOTOGP » de Puniet stars on Honda debut

Amazing stuff from Randy, can you believe this guy? Jumps on Checas bike and flies away!
C'est fantastique!

Sad to see him leave my team.

But i wish him the best of luck and a great year.

As an australian i still find it hard why they chose west over him.

I think people should stop knocking this guy. If this is anything to go by, I think he could be a regular podium finisher next year.

I agree kawasakijosh. I think West has peaked.

GO Randy GO
My only fear is that honda wont help cuetomer team next year as they said , customer will stay on 2007 bikes whithout upgrade !!
it is a shame for randy, let s wait and see
didier

Josh - I think he probably had the offer from LCR (he used to race for them in 250) and considered it best to go for that rather than hang around and wait and see whether Kawasaki may or may not renew his contract. A bird in the hand,and all that.
Randy has always been quick, but his crashing habit lets him down.
Manybe a change of team will settle him, as it did for Stoner.

Josh, Mike is right, Randy decided to make his move without waiting for Kawasaki's choice, as Kawasaki were chasing Pedrosa, talking with everybody, and believing Randy and Westy would just wait for their decision. Some people in Japan are probably mad now to have (i) paid Hopper such a price and (ii) lost Randy.

Didier, it's even worse: Repsol as a sponsor is whining for years that Honda should repay them by making sure no satellite bike is as fast as the factory bikes. HRC was giving Gresini top stuff for Gibernau, it has stopped for Melandri, and it will be worse in '08. Still, Randy could be Honda's best customer, and Michelin's 3rd best, which could be sufficient to shine sometimes.

ALLEZ RANDY!!!

Hopkins is worth the money and will do better than Randy has done on the Kwak. You'll soon get behing Hopper and forget the French bloke.Unless he does what he has done this year, like take out half the field by forgetting to use his brakes and fall off while leading his home GP, he dives into more gravel than a goldfish.

Personally, I don't see Hopper doing any better on the Kawasaki than he did on the Suzuki.
For some reason that escapes me, certain elements of the media rave about the potential of the Kawasaki of the Japanese manufacturers, Kawasaki has always been the one that has invested the least, bounced in and out of championships regularly, and achieved the least.
I doubt anyone with real ambition would want to go to Kawasaki and I certainly can't believe it is a better option than Suzuki. Basically, Hopkins is Mr. 4th place man who has taken the short-term big bucks.

Kerry
Short term, big bucks is spot on.I am not sure if Hopper was pushed rather than jumped. After Vermin got the win, I think the writing was on the wall. I bet you Capirossi ends up higher in the championship next year than Mr Colgate