MotoGP: Catalunya Post-Race Test Times - Lorenzo Edges Hayden, Suzuki up to Speed

Jorge Lorenzo has topped the timesheets at the end of the Barcelona MotoGP test, but the talking point of the test was Suzuki. On its first public run out, Randy de Puniet clocked a time of 1’42.676, just over three quarters of a second off the time set by Lorenzo, an impressive debut.

Nicky Hayden set the second fastest time, close behind Lorenzo and ahead of Stefan Bradl. Both Hayden and Dovizioso ran back-to-back tests with the existing Ducati GP13 and the lab bike, but neither man was convinced that the lab bike was a step forward.

Cal Crutchlow took 5th spot, having spent the day working on the start of the race, as had his teammate Bradley Smith. Both men had made several exits with a completely full tank, to work on improving the first eight or so laps of the race, the point at which the Yamaha riders are struggling.

Valentino Rossi ended the day in 6th, working mainly on set up, but a crash in the afternoon disrupted his testing program. The Italian had gone out with a radically different weight distribution, but crashed in Turn 3, a fast turn. Rossi himself was unhurt, but the bike had been badly damaged while rolling through the gravel, leaving him unable to complete the test.

Aleix Espargaro finished in 6th place, just over six tenths off the pace of Lorenzo, an impressive feat on the Aprilia CRT machine. Espargaro said he had even been using an old spec engine with less power during the test, saving his higher spec engines for the race. But a new frame had offered some improvement for the ART, and allowed Espargaro to get in among the prototypes.

The test had been complicated by the weather conditions, the track temperature being considerably cooler than on race day. That meant an improvement in grip, making comparisons with performance in the race extremely difficult.

Yamaha now packs up and heads to Aragon, to join the Honda teams at the Motorland Aragon circuit. With rain forecast to fall around Alcañiz for the next few days, the factory Yamaha team maybe pleased they decided to stay at Barcelona on Monday.

Final Test Times from the Post-Race test at Catalunya:

Pos	No.	Rider	Bike	Time	Diff	Diff. Previous
1	99	Jorge Lorenzo	Yamaha	1:41.904
2	69	Nicky Hayden	Ducati	1:41.955	0.051	0.051
3	6	Stefan Bradl	Honda	1:42.227	0.323	0.272
4	4	Andrea Dovizioso	Ducati	1:42.417	0.513	0.190
5	35	Cal Crutchlow	Yamaha	1:42.462	0.558	0.045
6	46	Valentino Rossi	Yamaha	1:42.513	0.609	0.051
7	41	Aleix Espargaro	Aprilia ART	1:42.537	0.633	0.024
8	14	Randy de Puniet	Suzuki	1:42.676	0.772	0.139
9	29	Andrea Iannone	Ducati	1:42.697	0.793	0.021
10	38	Bradley Smith	Yamaha	1:43.180	1.276	0.483
11	51	Michele Pirro	Ducati	1:43.784	1.880	0.604
12	8	Hector Barbera	FTR Kawasaki	1:43.899	1.995	0.115
13	5	Colin Edwards	FTR Kawasaki	1:44.183	2.279	0.284
14	17	Karel Abraham	Aprilia ART	1:44.458	2.554	0.275
15	9	Danilo Petrucci	Suter BMW	1:44.477	2.573	0.019
16	70	Michael Laverty	PBM	1:44.547	2.643	0.070
17	71	Claudio Corti	FTR Kawasaki	1:44.794	2.890	0.247
18	68	Yonny Hernandez	Aprilia ART	1:45.078	3.174	0.284
19	52	Lukas Pesek	Suter BMW	1:47.379	5.475	2.301