Wet and wild at Jerez testing

The promised rains came along with a vengeance at the Jerez tests, accompanied by near gale force winds that effectively stopped any track action at times on Thursday.

Michele Pirro took his MotoGP test team Ducati to the fastest wet weather lap time at Jerez, running to a 1:51,8.

Running without a transponder, Davide Giugliano (Ducati World Superbike) was fastest of all the Superbike competitors with a 1:51’9.

The KRT duo of Tom Sykes and Jonathan Rea placed second and third respectively in the WSB wet times, with Sykes setting a 1:52,206 and Rea just 0.4 seconds behind.

Alvaro Bautista took his Aprilia to the second best MotoGP time of a heavily interrupted day, posting a 1:52,769 after 7 of only 11 laps.

New world champion Sylvain Guintoli (Pata Honda) ran to third in the Superbike wet ranking. His team will not test on Friday as they have enough data to work on; at this test gathered in all possible grip conditions.

Also leaving Jerez after the end of their testing programme today the Voltcom Crescent Suzuki team had Randy De Puniet improving each time he left the garage with a fifth best Superbike time, adding to his good performance in dry conditions on Wednesday. Alex Lowes only set three laps on his Suzuki before calling it a day, having been fast in dry testing.

Leon Camier (MV Agusta) made progress in the wet to set a 1:55’695 lap, after only starting out on track relatively late in the day.

With official Ducati MotoGP rider Andrea Dovizioso not riding, his team-mate Andrea Iannone set a 1:55,0, before the official squad packed up and left the tests.

Alex Rins set the fastest wet Moto2 time but only made 11 laps before he and his team finished up.

1. Michele Pirro (I), Ducati MotoGP, 1:51,8
2. Davide Giugliano (I), Ducati WSB, 1:51,9
3. Tom Sykes (GB), Kawasaki WSB, 1:52,206
4. Jonathan Rea (GB), Kawasaki WSB, 1:52,638
5. Alvaró Bautista (E), Aprilia MotoGP, 1:52,769
6. Sylvain Guintoli (F), Honda WSB, 1:53,357
7. Chaz Davies (GB), Ducati WSB, 1:53,8
8. Randy de Puniet (F), Suzuki WSB, 1:54,161
9. Marco Melandri (I), Aprilia MotoGP, 1:54,711
10. Andrea Iannone (I), Ducati MotoGP, 1:55.0
11. Leon Camier (GB), MV Agusta WSB, 1:55,695
12. Jules Cluzel (F), MV Agusta WSS, 1:56,277
13. Michael van der Mark (NL), Honda WSB, 1:56,420
14. Fabio Massei (I), Ducati STK, 1:56,431
15. Alex Rins (E), Kalex Moto2, 1:58,185
16. Lorenzo Zanetti (I), MV Agusta WSS, 1:58,888
17. Edgar Pons (E), Kalex Moto2, 1:59,392
18. Tony Covena (NL), Ducati STK, 2:00,554
19. Alex Lowes (GB), Suzuki WSB, 2:02,993