The MotoGP teams are on their way home following the completion of a second three-day preseason test at Sepang, where overnight rain had made for a greasy track surface at the start of the final day this morning. Most riders opted to wait until the afternoon before doing any meaningful work, lapping right up until the track closed at 6pm, although the majority struggled to improve their best times from yesterday. Dani Pedrosa was the fastest rider on track today although Jorge Lorenzo's time from yesterday was the quickest overall lap of the test.
POWER ELECTRONICS Aspar rider Randy De Puniet was one of the few riders to step his pace today and he did so in impressive fashion, finding seven tenths of a second from yesterday to clock the fastest lap of the test by a CRT rider. Once again the main focus of his work was on rear suspension and electronics, his best time coming on the penultimate lap of 45. His team-mate Aleix Espargaró did the same number of laps today and although he struggled with rear grip issues today his time of 2'02.628 from the final day of the previous test remains the quickest overall CRT lap during six days of preseason here.
13th Randy De Puniet 2.02.863 (45 laps):
“We continued to work on the rear grip issues we have found here at Sepang during this test, working with the rear suspension and electronics to try and get more stability under braking. We have taken small steps forward on every outing and even though the track was in bad shape again today we were able to improve on our lap times from the first test, which shows that we have worked in the right way. It has been a positive test here at Sepang and now I am looking forward to going to Jerez, a track where I am usually quick and where we will be able to confirm a lot of the data we have gathered here. The 2013 chassis is quite similar to last year but it gives us more options to play around with the set-up so hopefully we can find some more rear grip at Jerez.”
18th Aleix Espargaró 2.03.423 (45 laps):
“The track was really slippery today and we had a lot of trouble with the rear, even though we used the same set-up as the last two days. We went back to the configuration from the last test and it felt a little better but we need to work hard in the next test at Jerez to improve it and get more stability. Anyway, I am happy with the new chassis, which is an improvement on 2012, and we have more or less found a base set-up we're happy with so it's a case of working on small details and finding more rear grip. We have had six productive days here at Sepang and set the fastest CRT lap so we're very satisfied.”
Power Electronics Aspar Press Release
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