Valentino Rossi moved ahead on yet another rain-affected day at Jerez, topping the Sunday testing timesheets from Yamaha Factory Racing teammate Jorge Lorenzo. Monster Yamaha Tech 3s Cal Crutchlow joined his fellow Yamaha riders in the top three.
The first half of the day featured little track activity. Although there was no driving rain at that point, the track surface was greasy and semi-dry, meaning neither Slick nor Wet tyres would be completely suitable. After three and a half hours, now with a dryer surface, more runners elected to peel out of the pit lane.Rossi was just 15 thousands of a second quicker than Lorenzo, leading the way on his lap of 139.525. Less than half a tenth separated the top three riders and the final position marked the first time Rossi had topped any MotoGP session since first practice for last years British Grand Prix at Silverstone. On Monday, he and Lorenzo intend to run new chassis. Dani Pedrosa was Sunday's leading Repsol Honda Team bike in fourth, ahead of Ducati Teams Andrea Dovizioso who ran several new small parts, as the second Repsol bike of Marc Mrquez finished seventh.Sixth was GO&FUN Honda Gresinis lvaro Bautista, who missed over an hour of running following a crash towards the end of the afternoon. While testing different suspension to that of yesterday, the Spaniard lost control at Sito Pons corner and picked up small fractures in the fourth and fifth fingers of his left hand; now resting, he will be back in action on Monday morning.LCR Honda MotoGPs Stefan Bradl, Energy T.I. Pramac Racing Teams Andrea Iannone and Ducati Teams Nicky Hayden rounded out the top ten, but both the German and Italian endured crashes during the day. All riders had hoped for either fully wet or fully dry conditions in order to conduct proper comparisons for setup changes, although the former was preferable. That was certainly the case for rookies Bradley Smith and Bryan Staring, plus Danilo Petrucci who was running a new chassis for Came IodaRacing Project.Leading CRT was Hctor Barber in 11th position, ahead of Tech 3s Smith, Power Electronics Aspars Aleix Espargar and Iodas Petrucci. Incidentally, Espargar sampled a single wet lap in the closing stages but elected to return straight to the pits, whereas teammate Randy de Punietwho ended the day in 16th place, behind Ducati Test Team rider Michele Pirrowas caught out and crashed.Rounding out the top 20 were NGM Mobile Forward Racings Claudio Corti, Ignite Pramac Racing Teams Ben Spies, Cardion AB Motoracings Karel Abraham and PBMs Yonny Hernndez. The Colombians teammate, Michael Laverty, was all set to continue testing the teams own-built chassison which much ECU work was carried out yesterdaybut was also delayed by the rain en route to 24th slot.The aforementioned Staring, Forwards Colin Edwards and Avintia Blusenss Hiroshi Aoyama occupied positions 21 to 23; the latter may have destroyed a set of Wet tyres while running on a drying track, but was able to extract direct comparisons in similar conditions to those he finished in yesterday. The second Ioda bike of Luk Peek, the Czech newcomer in the CRT ranks, backed up the 25-bike field.Monday brings the last day of pre-season testing before the 2013 MotoGP campaign commences in Qatar on 7th April. Sunshine and blue skies are wished for in the paddock, but weather reports are warning of more rain.
