Randy de Puniet may have had one of the most powerful engines on the grid underneath him in 2007, at Kawasaki, and the same
Bridgestone tyres as
MotoGP world champion
Casey Stoner - but the Frenchman claims to prefer the delivery of his new Honda and was impressed by its Michelin tyres.
de Puniet completed a thorough 59 laps on Tuesday afternoon at Valencia, setting a promising seventh fastest lap time in the process - and was 0.7secs quicker than his Kawasaki replacement
John Hopkins.
"It has been a good day, I'm happy," declared Randy. "After 20 laps I started to have a good feeling with the Honda and to be just 0.4secs slower than my race time on Sunday is very encouraging. I started with Carlos Checa's race set-up and only made some small changes, although I was 5 kph faster in top speed compared to Carlos.
"I'm impressed with the switch to Michelin, the difference in tyres is not as big as I anticipated it would be. It was positive day, no problems, although there is still a lot to understand about the Honda, and my first impression is that the motor feels much easier to ride from lower rpm," he explained.
