In the World MotoGP Championship, we have now got to the heart of the matter, now that the Sepang and Jerez tests are over. Motul is accompanying once more team Yamaha Tech3 which, for the 2012 season, has signed up Andrea Dovizioso, 3rd last year in the championship, and Cal Crutchlow, 11th in 2011. At the Sepang tests, the team had achieved fine performances, Dovizioso finishing with the 3rd time and Crutchlow 5th.
At Jerez, on 23-25 March, rain disturbed the first two days of tests but, on the third day, the riders put in lap after lap: 83 for the British rider and 72 for his team-mate who was hindered at the start by an upset stomach. At the end of this session, Crutchlow held 5th time and Dovizioso 7th, which placed Tech3 in the lead of private teams by a wide margin. The Italian rider worked on his style to adapt it to the Yamaha YZR-M1, completely new for him: ‘We put in a lot of work to improve the machine’s stability on the way out of corners.
With a bit more time I’m sure I could have been in the six best.’ For Crutchlow, ‘We could see that the bike was working very well also on a track with more bends than that at Sepang where it had already behaved very well.’As for Hervé Poncharal, team manager, he is impatiently awaiting the first races: ‘We have the best team of riders in all the history of Tech3, and I trust they’ll obtain solid results!’ Just a bit more patience before the first round on 5 April in Qatar.
Test Jerez – Best lap
01// Casey Stoner – Honda Factory
02// Jorge Lorenzo – Yamaha Factory
03// Dani Pedrosa – Honda Factory
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05// Cal Crutchlow - Yamaha Tech3 Motul
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07// Andrea Dovizioso - Yamaha Tech3 Motul
