2013 Jerez MotoGP Test Day 3 Times: Crutchlow Tops Final Day Despite Last-Minute Shootout

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: