Repsol Honda’s Marc Marquez has upped the MotoGP ante once again in the third free practice session at Austin with a hard-tyre lap which matched his outright lap record set in qualifying last year - but Stefan Bradl an Dani Pedrosa have managed to make a small dent in the gap.
Marquez set a 2’03.046 with a little over five minutes remaining while Bradl, on the satellite LCR Honda, got to within three-quarters of a second of his works stablemate with a 2’03.791 while Pedrosa’s effort of 2’03.934 was 0.888s behind his team-mate.
However, Marquez was able to put in four laps faster than Bradl’s sole foray into the 2’03s while Pedrosa managed two in the 2’03s.
Ducati’s Andrea Dovizioso was easily the fastest of the Open class riders, using the soft-option tyre to edge ahead of Britain’s Bradley Smith by 0.024s with a 2’03.939 with Smith the last of the pack to go under the 2’04s barrier with his 2’03.963.
Andrea Iannone, on the Pramac Ducati, also utilised the soft tyre to go sixth in front of Jorge Lorenzo, who has dropped his time by eight-tenths today, with Cal Crutchlow’s last lap good enough to put him in seventh ahead of the man who replaced him at Monster Yamaha, Pol Espargaro.
Valentino Rossi is the last man to qualify automatically for qualifying two in tenth and is 1.265 slower than Marquez on the same tyres. Alvaro Bautista and Aleix Espargaro will have to fight it out in qualifying one for a place in the grand final.
Scott Redding, who has tried a set of Brembo brakes to replace his inconsistent Nissins, was just edged out of Production Honda top spot by Hiro Aoyama with Nicky Hayden right behind him in 16th. Broc Parkes and Michael Laverty were 21st and 22nd but have taken massive chunks out of their times.
