POWER ELECTRONICS RIDERS AIM TO KEEP UP TOP CRT BATTLE AT MISANO Aleix Espargaró arrives at round thirteen with four-point advantage over teammate Randy De Puniet After a two week break, the MotoGP World Championship returns to action with the San Marino GP. The Misano circuit hosts the thirteenth round of the series -the second on Italian soil. This will be the first time in many years that the late Marco Simoncelli will not be in attendance, and numerous tributes will be made to the fallen friend of the MotoGP paddock this weekend. The best celebration of his memory will be attempted by the riders, who will be trying to provide an exciting race for the fans. With Casey Stoner recovering from surgery, the title fight has been reduced to Jorge Lorenzo and Dani Pedrosa. Both battled for the lead on the final lap at Brno, in search of every advantage in their pursuit of the crown. Also pushing hard this weekend will be the POWER ELECTRONICS Aspar Team of Aleix Espargaró and Randy De Puniet. The duo continue to fight for superiority in the CRT sub-category in MotoGP, with the difference between them minimal. Espargaró leads the way with 45 points, whilst De Puniet has 41. The former has been the top CRT rider in five races so far, to his teammate’s four. The battle between the POWER ELECTRONICS Aspar Team riders continues with six races remaining. Aleix Espargaró: “I have good memories of Misano from my previous season in MotoGP and then in Moto2. I like the track a lot, so I hope to be able to have a strong weekend. We had some problems in the race at Brno, because the bike was sliding around a lot, so let’s hope that this doesn’t carry over to Misano. Misano is slower than Brno, although we will still be working off the existing setup. We have a good base, despite the problems that we had at Brno, so we will work with that. I have kept training hard these past two weeks; there are six races to go, but the last few fly by.” Randy De Puniet: “Misano is a fairly short circuit and very interesting for our team. I think that we are going to enjoy this weekend -we can do a good job there. We come into this race after a positive result at Brno and our aim is to continue at the same level. The plan at the beginning of the year was to end the season as the top CRT. We are on the right path towards that at the moment, but we have to keep pushing to overcome the four point advantage that Aleix holds over me. If all goes according to plan, then I am convinced that we will be very competitive again. We will continue to progress steadily in each practice session with the target of being the fastest CRT. I have disconnected a little over these past two weeks and have also been preparing for this final run in the season, which looks as tough as always.”