Casey Stoner and Randy De Puniet both completed a full day of MotoGP testing yesterday at Honda’s Motegi Twin Rings track, riding test machines for Honda and Suzuki, respectively.
Many roadracing fans have had special interest in these tests for two reasons: One, plenty of fans hoped it meant Stoner would return to MotoGP (although plenty of others are happy to see him gone). Stoner himself acknowledged this interest, but said he wasn’t returning.
Said Stoner: ” It felt really good to get back on the bike after nine months and I’m happy with how the test went, but it doesn’t change my mind about the wild cards – this is not something I am planning to do.”
Stoner tested both the 2013 and 2014 models of Honda’s RC213V.
De Puniet’s test was also of extreme interest to hardcore MotoGP fans, who are waiting for Suzuki to re-enter the championship. Only three manufacturers (Honda, Yamaha and Ducati) run factory bikes in the series right now, and everyone wants that number to grow.
How close is Suzuki’s bike to being ready? De Puniet’s best lap time was 1:48.60; Jorge Lorenzo managed to get pole at the mast MotoGP race there with a 1:44.96 time.
Apparently, De Puniet was experimenting with two different chassis over the day, but Suzuki only plans to develop one of those chassis. Their next test will be at the Misano circuit, starting Sept. 16.
“How close is Suzuki’s bike to being ready? De Puniet’s best lap time was 1:48.60; Jorge Lorenzo managed to get pole at the mast MotoGP race there with a 1:44.96 time.”
That’s a bit unfair. The conditions on day 2 at Motegi were extremely hot and slippery. All riders posted slower times than normal due to the conditions on the day. At the first test in May, de Puniet lapped Motegi @ 1:47 flat, 2.031 seconds off the pace of JL99. That was only 3/10s off of Rossi’s 2012 race pace on the Ducati. IOW, Suzuki is already looking reasonbly mid-pack.
For this test, I was disappointed to see that de Puniet’s times were the only ones I could find. Even Nobuatsu Aoki’s times for Suzuki weren’t posted. For those of us who’ve been following MotoGP for decades, seeing Aoki’s time would have been really, really interesting.