Submitted by David Emmett on
Cal Crutchlow leaves Jerez as the fastest man at the three-day test, having set the quickest time of the event on the final day. Even more impressive for Crutchlow is that he set that fastest time in the middle of his long run, while he was working on race set up.
Valentino Rossi ended the day as 2nd fastest, confirmation of his best time from yesterday, with both him and teammate Jorge Lorenzo testing a new chassis for the Yamaha M1. Stefan Bradl took 3rd spot and finished first of the Hondas, while Jorge Lorenzo ended the day in 4th, choosing to run a 22-lap race simulation (full race distance is 27 laps at Jerez) instead of chasing a fast time. He did set his fastest time during that race simulation, posting a string of mid 1:40s.
Marc Marquez took 5th place, six tenths off the pace of Crutchlow, and the only Repsol Honda rider on the grid, Dani Pedrosa having decided to leave the test as he did not feel he had anything more to test. Pedrosa has been suffering with muscle cramps in his neck, a problem which he suffered at Austin, and returned once he was on the bike at Jerez. That, too, may have played a part in his decision to leave the test.
Andrea Iannone was the fastest Ducati rider, the young Italian impressing on the Pramac satellite bike by finishing ahead of both factory riders. Nicky Hayden took 7th ahead of Andrea Dovizioso, and once again the gap to the Hondas and Yamahas was much improved, Iannone being eight tenths down on Crutchlow, where in previous years the gap was larger. Michele Pirro put the Ducati test bike into 9th, ahead of Randy de Puniet on the Aprilia ART machine. De Puniet has closed the gap to the factory prototypes, the Power Electronics Aspar rider just under a second and a half slower than Crutchlow, where last year he was nearly two seconds off the pace of Casey Stoner.
The last day of the test looked like being a complete washout, with rain arriving just 15 minutes after the track had opened, but the sun returned in the afternoon, and the riders took to the track to get a last shot at some serious testing ahead of the season opener at Qatar in just under two weeks' time. With testing now completed, the bikes and equipment are being packed up ready to be shipped out to the peninsula nation in the Persian Gulf. On 7th April, they will be used once again, and then they will be playing for keeps.
Results from Day 3:
Pos | No. | Rider | Bike | Time | Diff | Prev. |
1 | 35 | Cal Crutchlow | Yamaha | 1:39.511 | ||
2 | 46 | Valentino Rossi | Yamaha | 1:39.735 | 0.224 | 0.224 |
3 | 6 | Stefan Bradl | Honda | 1:39.975 | 0.464 | 0.240 |
4 | 99 | Jorge Lorenzo | Yamaha | 1:40.105 | 0.594 | 0.130 |
5 | 93 | Marc Marquez | Honda | 1:40.130 | 0.619 | 0.025 |
6 | 29 | Andrea Iannone | Ducati | 1:40.331 | 0.820 | 0.201 |
7 | 69 | Nicky Hayden | Ducati | 1:40.370 | 0.859 | 0.039 |
8 | 4 | Andrea Dovizioso | Ducati | 1:40.516 | 1.005 | 0.146 |
9 | 51 | Michele Pirro | Ducati Test | 1:40.881 | 1.370 | 0.365 |
10 | 14 | Randy De Puniet | Aprilia ART | 1:40.971 | 1.460 | 0.090 |
11 | 38 | Bradley Smith | Yamaha | 1:41.134 | 1.623 | 0.163 |
12 | 41 | Aleix Espargaro | Aprilia ART | 1:41.218 | 1.707 | 0.084 |
13 | 71 | Claudio Corti | FTR Kawasaki | 1:41.443 | 1.932 | 0.225 |
14 | 7 | Hiroshi Aoyama | FTR Kawasaki | 1:41.772 | 2.261 | 0.329 |
15 | 52 | Lukas Pesek | Suter BMW | 1:41.791 | 2.280 | 0.019 |
16 | 17 | Karel Abraham | Aprilia ART | 1:41.864 | 2.353 | 0.073 |
17 | 68 | Yonny Hernandez | Aprilia ART | 1:42.363 | 2.852 | 0.499 |
18 | 9 | Danilo Petrucci | Suter BMW | 1:42.428 | 2.917 | 0.065 |
19 | 70 | Michael Laverty | PBM | 1:42.470 | 2.959 | 0.042 |
20 | 67 | Bryan Staring | FTR Honda | 1:43.525 | 4.014 | 1.055 |
21 | 5 | Colin Edwards | FTR Kawasaki | 1:56.281 | 16.770 | 12.756 |
22 | 8 | Hector Barbera | FTR Kawasaki | 1:56.897 | 17.386 | 0.616 |
Comments
cant wait cant wait
cant wait cant wait anymore..
just 10 days more.
I get a feeling that Cal's team...
is going to open their shipping container at Qatar and find his M1's "motor" is going to look an awfully lot like a gerbil wheel courtesy of the Yamaha factoy he stated he will not help protect as the season gets on.
Go, Cal! Keep it under control and rubber side down (while you're still given a fighting chance!).
Yesterday many paragraphs
Yesterday many paragraphs about Rossi winning testing. Let us hope that today there will be just as much written about Crutchlow winning the same illustrious award. After all, some of us want to know about the riders that Rossi and Marquez must beat.
Where's Ben Spies?
Where did Ben Spies end up in the pecking order?
Ben Spies
Spies decided not to risk his shoulder. Shoulder surgery takes a long time to recover from, and it's going to be a while before he is back up to speed. With rain in the morning, Spies decided caution was the better part of valor.