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Immediately after his home Grand Prix at Le Mans, Randy de Puniet served as a Suzuki test rider for two days in Japan. Twin Ring Motegi was the venue as the Frenchman tested the new 1,000cc prototype, prior to the post-race test session at the Circuit de Catalunya in less than three weeks’ time.
Pending official confirmation of its return to the MotoGP™ World Championship in 2014, Suzuki continues to develop its prototype and entrusted it to experienced de Puniet last week, with the test taking place across Thursday and Friday.
Although the rider is unable to talk of the test with the Japanese company, manager Eric Mahe has confirmed to motogp.com that the test was ‘positive’ and that Suzuki engineers were ‘pleasantly surprised’ by de Puniet’s ability in giving useful feedback.
The 32-year-old racked up approximately 100 laps across the two days, running between 10am and 12pm as well as between 2pm and 4pm. Having quickly established a working relationship with the engineers, he went on to discuss the bike in order to provide a detailed analysis of its strengths and weaknesses.
De Puniet, who at the end of 2011 had tested the GSV-R800 motorcycle prior to Suzuki’s withdrawal from MotoGP™, will next ride the new 1,000cc bike at the Official post-race Test in Barcelona, taking place one day after the Grand Prix of Catalunya; on that occasion, he will run alongside current 2013 bikes. A further Suzuki track outing will come as a private test at MotorLand Aragon on Wednesday and Thursday of the same week, with Honda and Yamaha also expected to attend.
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