ESPARGARÓ AND DE PUNIET CONTINUE CRT BATTLE IN GERMANY POWER ELECTRONICS Aspar separated by a single championship point after seven rounds The MotoGP World Championship this week heads to Sachsenring, a circuit that if it wasn’t for Laguna Seca would be the shortest on the calendar. A mixture of flowing corners and hard braking zones with barely a straight piece of track to speak of, the German track always presents a difficult challenge for the engineers and riders but it also presents another opportunity for the CRT machines to to spring a surprise on their factory MotoGP rivals after an impressive weekend at Assen. The first corner tangle between Alvaro Bautista and Jorge Lorenzo at the Dutch TT has blown the race for the premier-class title wide open, with Casey Stoner able to draw level with Lorenzo on points as the series heads for round eight of eighteen. POWER ELECTRONICS Aspar rider Randy De Puniet led a CRT charge into the top ten for the first time at Assen, the Frenchman’s eighth place seeing him draw level on points with his team-mate Aleix Espargaró, who was unfortunately forced out of the race with an engine problem. The pair go head-to-head this weekend as they continue their own private battle to be the best of the new generation machines. Aleix Espargaró: “We worked really hard at Assen and it was a perfect weekend up until the race. My pace was good and I had a strong chance of finishing as the best CRT but a problem with the engine left us out of the race. It’s an unfortunate blip but it is behind us now and we have to keep working this weekend. Our level is clearly very high and we are not going to let a small setback get us down. At Sachsenring we will be fighting to be the best CRT again. It is a small but fast track, not one of my favourites but I think we can do well there. It should be easier for the CRT bikes to get closer to the factory prototypes and I am looking forward to getting on with it and putting Assen behind us as quickly as possible.” Randy De Puniet: “I am still feeling happy and satisfied with the performance at Assen. It was a real team effort and after turning our bad luck around we can focus on maintaining our work ethic and picking up good results. The set-up is getting closer and closer to perfection and the bike is incredibly easy to handle now. We just need to focus on improving performance of the engine. At Sachsenring we’ll have another opportunity to score a good result and my objective will be the same as usual: to be the best CRT. The fact it is such a short track should reduce the gap to the factory prototypes but I don’t want to think about that or take my eye off our primary objective.”