However, both suffered disappointment with the change in weather conditions on Sunday. Aleix Espargaró was able to claim two points from his race, courtesy of a thirteenth place finish.

Randy de Puniet had an even more unfortunate time at his home race. The Frenchman's race was decided right off the start line, when his ART high-sided as the lights went out. De Puniet escaped uninjured, but had to take his bike back to the pits and jump onto the second, unfamiliar, machine. Re-joining the race a lap down on the rest of the field, the French rider put in further laps for the fans to cheer him on and for the team to gather data, but in the end he suffered another crash and was forced to call it a day.

Aleix Espargaró"This weekend was a disaster -it couldn't have gone worse. In the morning warm-up I felt more or less ok, but then when the race came around I was not comfortable at all. I didn't have any weight on the rear and was sliding around on the gas. We rode really slowly and were far off everyone, but at least this weekend is over and I can look ahead to Montmeló."

Randy de Puniet"The team made some changes for the race, but I was only able to check how the bike was on the warm-up lap. The start was really strange, as when I put the clutch in the bike high-sided; that has never happened to me before. To be honest, I was lucky, because it could have been much worse with the riders behind me coming through. I went back to the pits, got on the second bike and was already a lap behind, plus the feeling wasn't great with that machine either. In the end, shortly before the finish, I crashed again. It is a shame, because up until yesterday I was riding well in the dry, but in the wet this weekend was a disaster. Fortunately I didn't re-injure myself, and I hope to be at 100% for Barcelona."