De Puniet signs with Aspar CRT team
Added on Monday, November 28th, 2011 by Carole Nash Editor
De Puniet signs with Aspar CRT team
Randy de Puniet will remain in MotoGP in 2012 after agreeing to race for the Aspar CRT team alongside Aleix Espargaro.
The French rider, who had a difficult season with Pramac Ducati in 2011, was without a ride for 2012 following the season finale in Valencia earlier this month and spent time with Rizla Suzuki in the post-season test.
Suzuki’s decision to pull-out of MotoGP seemed to end any hope of securing a ride for 2012, with De Puniet linked strongly with a move to WSB before agreeing a contract with Aspar. The 30-year-old tested team’s Aprilia CRT bike at Jerez last week, finishing at the top of the timesheets, but deal does represent a U-turn for De Puniet however, who earlier this season said that he was not interested in riding a CRT machine.
“I am very happy to return to the Aspar Team,” said de Puniet, “Having already raced with them in 2005 during my 250cc career. I have very fond memories of that time and now we are taking on a new challenge together in the shape of CRT. I know that this is a very competitive team and they will be fighting to have the best material available. We have already tested and gathered a lot of good feedback.
“CRT is the future of MotoGP and even though we have a lot of work ahead of us it will be enjoyable. The objective for next season will be to adapt as soon as possible to this new prototype and gradually close the gap to the factory bikes. Testing at Jerez was very productive, we had good weather and managed to gather a lot of good data. The lap times were interesting even though we are obviously a long way off the motorcycle we will start the season with so I am very pleased with how everything is coming together.”
Espargaró returns to MotoGP after a year in the Moto2 class. The Spaniard said: “First of all I am very excited to join the Aspar Team and especially to be returning to MotoGP, which is a huge source of motivation for me. In 2010 I had a pretty positive season and I would have liked to continue for another year.
“I think that with my height and weight I should be more suited to the category. CRT is a totally new concept and we will have a lot of work to do at the start but I have joined the Aspar Team because they comes with certain guarantees and I know they won’t take this challenge lightly.”
Team manager, Martinez added: “We are really happy because we find ourselves with a brand new challenge ahead of us and we have full faith that CRT is the future of MotoGP, which is why we are amongst the first to join this initiative.
As a team we continue to grow and after having a single rider for our first two seasons in MotoGP we will now have two in Randy de Puniet and Aleix Espargaró. We are sure that this will be a successful project with the riders we have but also with the engine supplier, which will be Aprilia. We always wanted to stick with them for this project because of the fabulous relationship we have with them and their pedigree in the smaller classes. Our objective this season is to be the best CRT team and to prepare for another step forward in 2013.”
