Aspar Aprilia's Randy De Puniet upped the pace on the second day of MotoGP CRT testing at Jerez and pulled further away from the field with a best lap of 1'40.9, knocking more than half a second off his best time from yesterday despite struggling for grip.
The Frenchman, along with team-mate Aleix Espargaro, spent the day working on electronics packages after evaluating a new frame and swingarm combination yesterday. Espargaro was second fastest but some way behind De Puniet, lapping in 1'42.6, which was no faster than yesterday.
PBM Aprilia's James Ellison also made his debut on the ART bike and did 36 shakedown laps on the new bike. He managed a fastest lap of 1'44.4 but expects to be faster tomorrow.
Karel Abraham (Cardion AB Motoracing) joined the test this morning, completing 46 laps before a crash in which his GP12 went up in flames, causing huge damage to the front end and chassis. The Czech rider escaped without serious injury but the Ducati team now have a big job to get the bike fixed for Hector Barbera (Pramac Racing) to ride tomorrow, as the Spaniard was to share the satellite Ducati with Abraham for one day each of testing. Ducati are hopeful that their mechanics can repair the bike tonight for the third and final day of testing.
