Frenchman Randy De Puniet yesterday confounded the critics of MotoGP's sub-formula, CRT, by lapping only a tenth slower on his Aspar Aprilia ART bike than Valentino Rossi managed on the full-factory, multi-million pound Ducati Desmosedici GP12 and was was in front of three other Bologna bikes.

The former Honda man was quicker than test rider Franco Battaini, and satellite teamsters Hector Barbera and Karel Abraham while his own team-mate, Aleix Esparago, was himself snapping at the latter two's heels but 1.2 seconds behind De Puniet who crashed mid-session and lost track time, completing only 39 laps.

"I am really happy with the way this first day has gone here at Jerez. Despite a few technical problems and a crash halfway through the day we have been working on the right lines and the lap times are really good. The crash put me out of action for a while because the bike was badly damaged but the team did a brilliant job to set the other bike up and I was able to lap eleventh fastest, ahead of some factory riders. I don't think we could expect much more from this first day of testing. It is satisfying to see the hard work we have done over the winter paying off and now that we are all on track together we can check our level," he said.