Valentino Rossi, Jorge Lorenzo, Andrea Dovizioso and Dani Pedrosa will all have to go through MotoGP qualifying one this afternoon after rain halted progress in free practice three with Cal Crutchlow the only rider to improve on yesterday’s times in Argentina.
Crutchlow went out with ten minutes of the session gone on an LCR Honda shod with medium Michelins all round and improved from seventh to second with a 1’39.772. Soon after, forecast rain started to fall and it was game over for laptimes so the top ten from free practice two will form the automatic placings in qualifying two.
The Coventry rider pointed out in pitlane that no-one has done any laps on the 2017 wet tyres yet this season, so should it stay wet, free practice four will be a tester to get some sort of setup before qualifying.
Rossi was waiting for a harder-construction front Michelin to be released from customs which may have helped his corner-entry problems but it was removed from the allocation by riders in the safety commission last night so will not be available for him to use.
He, Lorenzo, Pedrosa and Dovizioso face the fight for two places which would take them into qualifying two but Johann Zarco will also be in the fight, as will Scott Redding - who improved his laptime to 1’40.321 on the hard tyre in third practice, but the Octo Ducati rider hasn’t yet found a setup on the soft rear.
It means that Karel Abraham will start from inside the front four rows at Rio Hondo, as will Loris Baz and Aleix Espargaro who could all prove difficult for the works guys to find a way past tomorrow. Espargaro proved how good the Aprilia is over race distance in Qatar and a decent qualifying lap could see him better his Doha result.
Riders with automatic qualifying two places:
1 25 M.VIÑALES SPA Movistar Yamaha MotoGP YAMAHA 1’40.356 17 1’39.477 18 1’39.867 9
2 35 C.CRUTCHLOW GBR LCR Honda HONDA 1’41.073 16 1’40.124 15 1’39.772 7 0.295 0.295
3 93 M.MARQUEZ SPA Repsol Honda Team HONDA 1’40.958 11 1’39.778 16 1’40.394 6 0.301 0.006
4 17 K.ABRAHAM CZE Pull&Bear Aspar Team DUCATI 1’40.678 18 1’39.880 14 1’40.742 6 0.403 0.102
5 19 A.BAUTISTA SPA Pull&Bear Aspar Team DUCATI 1’40.936 17 1’39.922 17 1’40.638 6 0.445 0.042
6 9 D.PETRUCCI ITA OCTO Pramac Racing DUCATI 1’40.562 16 1’39.960 18 1’40.700 7 0.483 0.038
7 76 L.BAZ FRA Reale Avintia Racing DUCATI 1’41.867 14 1’40.120 17 1’40.397 5 0.643 0.160
8 94 J.FOLGER GER Monster Yamaha Tech 3 YAMAHA 1’40.660 19 1’40.157 18 1’40.734 4 0.680 0.037
9 41 A.ESPARGARO SPA Aprilia Racing Team Gresini APRILIA 1’40.982 16 1’40.175 16 1’40.624 7 0.698 0.018
10 29 A.IANNONE ITA Team SUZUKI ECSTAR SUZUKI 1’40.701 17 1’40.250 16 1’40.590 6 0.773 0.075
