Movistar Yamaha’s Valentino Rossi snatched top spot in this morning’s third MotoGP free practice session at Assen by just a tenth of a second while the Repsol Hondas of Dani Pedrosa and Marc Marquez slipped down the order.
Rossi’s last flying lap saw him bring down the circuit best lap to a 1’33.167 to just pip Lorenzo who had bagged top spot just seconds earlier with a 1’33.275, himself demoting Britain’s Bradley Smith, who was outside the crucial top ten going into the session.
A light shower interrupted the practice just after Monster Yamaha’s Smith pulled himself into tenth place and a slot in qualifying two. As the track dried, Pol Espargaro put in a 1’33.887 to once again demote Smith to the qualifying one zone but he hit straight back to bag fourth with a 1’33.527.
After the top men made their way back to pitlane for tweaks and a new set of tyres, Andrea Dovizioso came out with the hammer down, stealing third with a 1’33.518 while Pol Espargaro sat behind him to take fourth on a 1’33.660.
Smith then set about his final run, going under Pedrosa’s fastest lap from yesterday with a 1’33.387 to take top spot but he was demoted by Lorenzo in short order. Andrea Iannone used his soft-tyre concession to shoot into second place with a 1’33.292 before Rossi hit the top of the sheet.
Dovizioso was on a pole schedule in the first two sectors but a slow final sector saw his lap drop to a 1’33.356. That was enough for fourth and to put Smith back to fifth place. Pedrosa didn’t better his pace from yesterday but remained in sixth on combined times.
Repsol Honda team-mate Marc Marquez did go quicker than yesterday but finds himself down in sixth - but the reigning champion is only three-tenths off the lead with another free practice to go before qualifying.
Class rookie Maverick Vinales, also allowed the soft-tyre concession on his works Suzuki, ended in eighth place, one ahead of Pol Espargaro while Cal Crutchlow must have been playing the world’s smallest violin as he scraped into qualifying two by right in tenth place. The top ten are covered by just 0.567s.
Danilo Petrucci, on the Pramac Ducati, will have Aleix Espargaro for company in qualifying one and Scott Redding is also in the mix but the soft tyres of the GP15 and GSX-RRs will make it a hard job for the Marc VDS man to get through.
Eugene Laverty closed the gap to the leaders to 1.859s and ended in 21st place as he acclimatises to the new swingarm and the different setup it requires.
