MotoGP testing: Cal Crutchlow fastest in final pre-season running
Cal Crutchlow completed MotoGP pre-season testing at the top of the times as he emerged fastest from another rain-limited scramble on the final afternoon at Jerez
What was forecast to be the best day of the weather-disrupted test ultimately delivered another rain-hit morning before the track dried towards the end of the afternoon.
Crutchlow judged the drying circuit best and set a 1m39.511s on his Tech 3 Yamaha, edging out factory rider and Sunday pacesetter Valentino Rossi by 0.244 seconds.
Stefan Bradl enjoyed his best performance of the winter as he got his LCR Honda up to third, demoting champion Jorge Lorenzo and denying Yamaha a top-three sweep.
Marc Marquez was fifth and the sole works Honda rider in action.
Troubled by the neck pain that has afflicted him at times in recent weeks and feeling he had nothing more to learn in the wet, Dani Pedrosa decided to head home early.
Pramac's Ben Spies did not run either, while Alvaro Bautista sat the session out to rest the knee and finger injuries he sustained in his Sunday crash.
Top Ducati rider Andrea Iannone was within 0.8s of the pace in sixth, followed by works men Nicky Hayden and Andrea Dovizioso, who had warned on Sunday not to take the bike's apparent improvement too seriously given the weather.
Randy de Puniet returned to the head of the CRT pack in 10th for Aspar, pushing Crutchlow's team-mate Bradley Smith outside the top 10. But the young Briton had led the way for a while when the track began to dry.
Ducati test rider Michele Pirro was quickest of the few riders who took part in the morning's wet running.
Pos Rider Team/Bike Time Gap Laps 1. Cal Crutchlow Tech 3 Yamaha 1m39.511s 30 2. Valentino Rossi Yamaha 1m39.735s + 0.224s 32 3. Stefan Bradl LCR Honda 1m39.975s + 0.464s 26 4. Jorge Lorenzo Yamaha 1m40.105s + 0.594s 42 5. Marc Marquez Honda 1m40.130s + 0.619s 34 6. Andrea Iannone Pramac Ducati 1m40.331s + 0.820s 25 7. Nicky Hayden Ducati 1m40.370s + 0.859s 42 8. Andrea Dovizioso Ducati 1m40.516s + 1.005s 30 9. Michele Pirro Ducati 1m40.881s + 1.370s 44 10. Randy de Puniet Aspar Aprilia 1m40.971s + 1.460s 24 11. Bradley Smith Tech 3 Yamaha 1m41.134s + 1.623s 56 12. Aleix Espargaro Aspar Aprilia 1m41.218s + 1.707s 39 13. Claudio Corti Forward FTR-Kawasaki 1m41.443s + 1.932s 44 14. Hiroshi Aoyama Avintia FTR-Kawasaki 1m41.772s + 2.261s 41 15. Lukas Pesek Ioda Suter-BMW 1m41.791s + 2.280s 49 16. Karel Abraham Cardion Aprilia 1m41.864s + 2.353s 36 17. Yonny Hernandez PBM Aprilia 1m42.363s + 2.852s 25 18. Danilo Petrucci Ioda Suter-BMW 1m42.428s + 2.917s 18 19. Michael Laverty PBM-Aprilia 1m42.470s + 2.959s 36 20. Bryan Staring Gresini FTR-Honda 1m43.525s + 4.014s 41 21. Colin Edwards Forward FTR-Kawasaki 1m56.281s + 16.770s 14 22. Hector Barbera Avintia FTR-Kawasaki 1m56.897s + 17.386s 5
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