Cycle News

MOTOGP MOTOGP WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP FINAL ROUND/NOVEMBER 9, 2014 RICARDO TORMO CIRCUIT/VALENCIA, SPAIN P50 Briefly... Karel Abraham has bucked the trend in MotoGP, switching from the all-but universal Brembo brakes to Japanese Nissin, after mystery brake problems struck at the three flyaway rounds. Abraham was livid after the first crash at Motegi, after complain- ing about braking performance and being told there was nothing wrong. At Valencia, after the first day with Nissins, the Czech law graduate was upbeat. "The new brakes are great. Immediately I had a good feeling, and they are user-friendly. The per- formance is constant and it seems I can count on them. However we will find out during winter tests in hot weather in Malaysia, where you have to brake more intensively." For the past four years all teams have used Brembos, except for Fausto Gresini's team, currently backed by GO&FUN, using not only Nissin brakes but also Japa- nese Showa suspension, thanks to a lucrative contract. Rider Alvaro Bautista blames his currently dire performance on having to use this equipment, with no reference points with other riders, and he the only one leading development on a fac- tory machine. The Tech 3 team launched a new project at Valencia–Tech 3 Classic, rebuilding (yes) classic machines. On display was their own 2000 title- winning Yamaha 250 two-stroke; but parked alongside and attracting much more interest was a marvel- ously spindly 1969 TD2 350 Yama- ha, an air-cooled twin. A ROUGH RETURN Suzuki's welcome rac- ing return was marked by somewhat respect- able (or at least not disastrous) lap times, a marked lack of top speed, and–on the first day–a plume of smoke that was anything but celebratory. After more than a year of testing, Randy de Puniet returned to the real thing. The bike looks and sounds impressive, and from the start of practice was well up among the Open-category production Hon- das, which must be taken as at least encouraging. Those machines and their riders are race-hardened by a year of competition. The gap to the factory bikes was as much as anything down to a shortage of top speed ... a problem that the factory believes they will be able to address. The gap is large, however. In qualifying, Pedrosa's Honda was fastest, at around 205 mph, with several others at more than 201 mph. De Puniet's best was 192.5 mph. The smoke came in the second practice session, with a top-end blow-up that is potentially more wor- rying than the need to find another 12.5 mph. Another trackside break- down on Saturday left de Puniet in danger of exceeding the wild-card allocation of three engines, which would have meant a pit-lane start. But the team was not discour- aged, after a year when many planned tests were disrupted by the weather, and with a race-rusty rider. De Puniet eventually qualified 20th, half-a-tenth down on Aoyama's upgraded Honda RCV1000R and de Angelis's Forward Yamaha, and ahead of the Ioda Aprilia ART, both PBMs, and the Avintia Kawasaki. He retired from the race before half dis- tance, with another engine problem, although this time able to return to the pit under his own power. Crew chief Tom O'Kane admitted that reliability was a problem that needed solving, but was generally encouraged at the bike's first outing in anger. "It's hard to assess your position when you're testing alone – for instance at Austin it had rained after the GP and before our test, so the track wasn't in the same condi- tion as it had been for the race," O'Kane said. Rain spoiled other tests in Argentina and at Aragon, and there was clearly work to be done before the full-time return next year. O'Kane was also curiously await- ing the responses and lap times of next year's full-time riders Aleix Espargaro and Maverick Vinales, both race-hardened by a year of competition, and due to start testing the day after the race. De Puniet's hopes of a Grand Prix return with the team were dashed, when he was instead transferred to the Suzuki World Su- perbike squad for next year, but he will continue in his test role, which would allow him to "keep a foot in both series". "To be here is a present to me from Suzuki," De Puniet said. Randy De Puniet and Suzuki's return to racing at Valencia was fraught with technical issues.

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