Movistar Yamaha’s Jorge Lorenzo has set the early pace in today’s opening MotoGP free practice session in Argentina with a final lap of 1’42.804 to set a time half a second quicker than the Open YZR-M1 of Aleix Espargaro.
The former champion started the session steadily but ramped up the pace as the clock ticked down to better his compatriot’s time by 0.481 with Go&Fun Honda’s Alvaro Bautista in third and a further three-tenths in arrears.
Pramac Ducati’s Andrea Iannone was less than a tenth slower than Bautista but had to abort a late fast lap, where he was fastest in the first two sectors, when he ran on. Britain’s Bradley Smith leapt into fifth place with his last lap and is a second off his Yamaha stable-mate’s time.
Smith’s Monster Yamaha teamster Pol Espargaro was second quickest towards the end of the 45 minutes but slipped to sixth while Stefan Bradl, who led with ten minutes left to run, ended in seventh, ahead of Andrea Dovizioso who set a 1’44.096 for eighth ahead of Nicky Hayden.
Valentino Rossi rounded out the top ten with his quickest of 1’44.502, just one place and a quarter of a second ahead of Scott Redding.
Repsol Honda’s Marc Marquez was fast out of the blocks, setting his quickest time of 1’45.103 on his third lap but he then chose not to better it despite doing another 13 laps. Dani Pedrosa was two further places back.
Michael Laverty was also a fast starter, rattling up to seventh place at half-distance but a crash at turn five set him back and, depsite getting back out, he ended in 19th with a 1’46.167.
