Jorge Lorenzo upped his game with the softest-available Michelin rear to top the Friday MotoGP timesheet at Valencia with compatriot and rival rival Marc Marquez a quarter of a second behind while Ecstar Suzuki’s Maverick Vinales made it a Spanish lockout, taking third on a 1’30.775 and the final rider to get under the 1’31s barrier.
Lorenzo switched from the hard to medium rear for his last run while using the 2017-spec front Michelin and dropped his laptime from a 1’31.045 this morning, aided by a jump in track temperature, to a 1’30.465 with Marquez’ Honda mustering a 1’30.710 as the field scrabbled to get into the top ten as mornings at Valencia are, as this morning, chilly.
Marquez looks to have the strongest pace as he put a medium rear/hard front combination to good use, setting five 1’30s laps in a row at the beginning of his third run while Lorenzo only grabbed one as Vinales put in two but was shaking his head as he rode back into the garage.
Pol Espargaro took his Monster Yamaha to fourth place after sitting in second with 1’31.785 and then cut it to a 1’31.000 to finish 0.066s ahead of works Ducati man Andrea Dovizoso. Aleix Espargaro was another rider who started fast, popping up to third with 15 minutes to go but getting shuffled to sixth.
Andrea Iannone is three-quarters of a second off the pace on his works Desmosedici but ahead of fellow Italian Valentino Rossi who could only muster a 1’31.257, almost eight-tenths slower than Lorenzo. Danilo Petrucci and Dani Pedrosa completed the top ten which may remain as is due to the expected track temperatures in the morning.
Crocked Cal Crutchlow and fellow Brit Scott Redding are on the cusp of an automatic qualifying two spot, finishing in 11th and 12th but separated by only 0.009s.
Hector Barbera ended in 13th place, Jack Miller 14th and Eugene Laverty hit eighth place with six minutes left but ended up in 15th on a 1’31.776. Bradley Smith is stuck down in 19th place with Mika Kallio in 22nd and three seconds off the pace on the KTM.
