De Puniet and Espargaro Dominate CRT Field in Czech Republic

After a crash-strewn GP in Indianapolis last weekend red flag fever continued in MotoGP today, free practice being brought to a temporary halt in both the morning an the afternoon after first Valentino Rossi dragged gravel onto the track and then Yonny Hernandez crashed and burst an air fence. Ben Spies, Jorge Lorenzo and Aleix Espargaró also hit the deck on a day that saw Dani Pedrosa clock the fastest time as he looks to strengthen his title challenge in the absence of his injured team-mate Casey Stoner.

It was largely a day of experimentation for POWER ELECTRONICS Aspar riders Espargaró and Randy De Puniet although both were satisfied with their performances by the close of play. De Puniet clocked an impressive 1'58.667 this morning but was unable to match his pace in the afternoon whilst the reverse was true of Espargaró, who struggled with his set-up in the opening session but later found his feet after changing back to the base setting that served him so well at Mugello last month. The pair continue to set the pace amongst the CRT bikes on track and again outpaced several factory prototypes today on their way to ninth and tenth place.

Randy De Puniet

“We had a good session this morning when we put the soft tyre in and had a lot of grip mid-corner. We changed a few things with the gearbox setting this afternoon and it didn't work so we'll have to take a step backwards tomorrow. We have also done some tyre testing and again the feeling wasn't the same as this morning but it is important to try these things in practice so you can rule certain things out. At the end of the session we got back into the groove we had this morning so we'll use those same settings tomorrow.”

Aleix Espargaró

“I am happy with this afternoon;s session because we improved a lot from this morning. I wasn't feeling comfortable with the bike but we made some big changes on my second bike and went back to the setting we had at Mugello. Like Brno it is a fast track and quite similar in a few other ways so we were able to make some big improvements quite quickly and my lap time was dropping further when we ran into some traffic at the end. Anyway this afternoon's session has given me confidence for the rest of the weekend. Everything we tried worked so we know what we need to do tomorrow.”

Power Electronics Aspar Press Release

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Source: http://www.zimbio.com/MotoGP/articles/hUhk7sW5yCV/De+Puniet+Espargaro+Dominate+CRT+Field+Czech

Jan Bäckstrom Chris Baert Graham Bailey Steve Baker Peter Balaz