Reigning MotoGP World Champion Marc Marquez seized control of the Aragon MotoGP timesheets in Spain this morning, setting the fastest lap of the weekend so far to put a tenth of a second gap behind him to yesterday’s fastest man Jorge Lorenzo before the pack heads into qualifying this afternoon.

Marquez, on the works Repsol Honda, stuck in a 1’47.380 on only his third lap of the session, using a medium/medium Bridgestone combination, to go 0.137 quicker than Lorenzo’s time from yesterday. The Movistar Yamaha man didn’t improve on his time from the second session and stays on a 1’47.517 but tried both medium/soft and medium/medium tyre combinations.

Lorenzo and Marquez are the men with pace as both set multiple laps in the 1’47s bracket during the session. Marquez was fast out of the blocks on a medium/medium combination with four and then set two more later on while Lorenzo, also on medium/medium, bunged in two right at the end of his last run. Team-mate Valentino Rossi did just one, a 1’47.692 which was enough for fourth on the combined sheet, while Dani Pedrosa moved a place ahead of The Doctor with a 1’47.663, his sole lap in the 1’47s.

Andrea Iannone, who is carrying a freshly re-dislocated shoulder, used his soft-tyre advantage to jump into fifth place with his penultimate lap and then bettered it with a 1’47.786. Britain’s Cal Crutchlow had occupied fifth but was bumped to sixth by Iannone’s lap. The Givi Honda man found some pace on the medium rear to put in a 1’48.257 with only a minute to spare.

Bradley Smith couldn’t find any extra pace over yesterday and a big crash didn’t help matters but he remained in seventh place, one ahead of Monster Yamaha team-mate Pol Espargaro. Maverick Vinales found more than a second overnight and used a soft/soft combination to bag his place in qualifying two while Suzuki team-mate Aleix Espargaro finished tenth and took the last automatic place in qualifying two.

Andrea Dovizioso couldn’t match the pace of the works Ducati team-mate, even with the soft rear, and will have to go through qualifying one, as will Scott Redding who missed tenth place by less than a tenth of a second but will have to now battle the soft-tyred Ducati men of Dovizioso, Danilo Petrucci and Yonny Hernandez for a place in Q2.

Eugene Laverty couldn’t get near his pace from yesterday and ended in 21st place.

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