3. Randy de Puniet (MotoGP)
2013 hasn’t been a vintage year for Randy de Puniet but by anyone’s standards, the Frenchman had a fine weekend. Throughout free practice, de Puniet was not only the quickest CRT rider in the field, by some distance, but he was also giving the prototype machines a hurry-up, especially those with Ducati written on them (in FP2 he was ahead of the lot of them).
Saturday was a day of contrasts for Randy who saw off the challenge of Aspar teammate Aleix Espargaro to qualify automatically for Q2 but when the pole position shootout did arrive, de Puniet crashed out. His practice exploits ensured that he’d still start ahead of Espargaro on the grid and in the dramatic flag-to-flag Grand Prix, de Puniet would go on to thrash his highly rated teammate, finishing nine seconds ahead in tenth while keeping the Ducatis of Andrea Iannone and Andrea Dovizioso in sight too.
In some ways, Sunday summed up Randy’s season as Espargaro dominated the headlines even on a day when he couldn’t match his teammate’s pace. Aleix finished eleventh to clinch the 2013 CRT championship and while the season-long battle between the two may have been settled in the Spaniard’s favour, de Puniet at least ended his 250th GP in the ascendancy at Aspar.
(Photo Credit: MotoGP.com)
