Power Electronics Aspar's Randy de Puniet (Photo: Team Aspar)

De Puniet & Aprilia CRT Push Satellite Riders

Randy de Puniet took the Power Electronics Aspar Aprilia to 13th place overall, a full second ahead of his Spanish teammate, Aleix Espargaró, and only 0.022 off the last of the satellite riders, Karel Abraham. His time of 1'40.601 pulled him well clear of the rest of the CRT machines.

The best of the rest of the CRT field was Espargaró followed by Came Ioda Racing Project's Danilo Petrucci (runner-up in last year’s FIM Superstock Championship). The rest of the riders on track in Jerez all posted times slower than the very fast Moto2 time of former FIM Superstock runner-up Claudio Corti on his Kalex.

How could Corti on a 120hp Moto2 set faster times than American veteran (and two-time World Superbike Champion) Colin Edwards (BMW-Suter), Michel Pirro (CBR Honda-FTR) and the two Kawasaki-FTRs of Spanish Superstock Champion Ivan Silva and Colombian Yonny Hernandez, moving up from Moto2?

The answer is corner speed. The Kalex, like the rest of the faster Moto2 machines, is a corner speed monster on a track with only one sixth gear straight. Two years ago the Moto2 bikes were unable to get under 1'44. Now Corti has equaled down to the 1/1000th of a second the pole position time of Loris Capirossi on the Ducati 990 Desmosedici in 2003. Wrestling a big(ger) MotoGP CRT with less than perfect electronics just may be harder than pushing a well-sorted little Kalex around the twisty 2.748 mile Spanish track.

And before dismissing the CRTs remember that in 2010 pundits said Moto2s would not even equal World Supersport times, let alone 250cc times. (Wrong twice.)

Clearly the best of the lot among the CRT teams is the Aspar Aprilia effort and among riders De Puniet, often underrated, is showing the form and motivation that we saw in 2010 when he qualified the satellite LCR Honda on the front row in three straight races (second in Silverstone and Assen and third in Cataluyna) before he was run over in a multi-bike crash at the Sachsenring. That crash spoiled his season, although he did finish ninth overall, just behind the late Marco Simoncelli and with six top-six finishes and a season's best fourth at Catalunya. Last season he was a disappointing 16th overall on the Pramac Ducati, but this preseason the Frenchman is riding well and his motivation is high. He will push the satellite bikes hard this year and set a standard that will challenge all CRT riders.

Texan Colin Edwards was only 17th and fourth of the nine CRTs. His Suter-BMW has been running since 2010 but Edwards was 1.472 seconds back of De Puniet. Something is wrong in the NGM Mobile Forward Racing team and Edwards and his team will have to find a way to fix it fast or this will be a long season for the winner of two World Superbike titles and 31 SBK races.