De Puniet to miss Jerez
Added on Thursday, November 20th, 2008 by Carole Nash Editor
De Puniet will wait on wrist injury.
Randy de Puniet will miss the first official MotoGP test of the 2009 season due to an ongoing wrist problem.
The French rider, who struggled with a wrist injury throughout much of last season, has decided to pull out of the opening test in Jerez in order to get back to full fitness ahead of the new season.
Jerez would have afforded de Puniet a first opportunity to test a Bridgestone-shod LCR Honda following the switch from Michelin but that opportunity will now have to wait until Sepang in February.
“I won’t be testing in Jerez, which will be good for me to recover completely,” he confirmed to the official MotoGP website. “I’m wearing a big protective support on my hand and wrist and, although I can’t do some movements with my right hand, the injury is getting better and less painful.
“I need to wear it for two more weeks and then it should be OK. At the moment I am only running and riding, but when I get better I will go back to my usual training like riding motocross and playing squash.”
The set-back hasn’t harmed his ambitions however, with the 27-year-old confident of a good season on Bridgestone tyres.
“My target is to improve consistency in race results. On and off the bike I will work differently to last year; I have the speed, a good team and good tyres as well, and I´m confident of having my best year in MotoGP. That´s my target.”
