Movistar Yamaha’s Jorge Lorenzo blasted to the top of the Brno MotoGP timesheets in free practice three this morning, putting in a 1’55.476 to go more than half a second quicker than team-mate Valentino Rossi while Britain’s Bradley Smith hauled himself into fourth place behind Marc Marquez.
Lorenzo was just under Cal Crutchlow’s circuit best lap of 1’55.527, set in 2013, but the LCR Honda man finds himself down in 13th place and will have to go through qualifying one along with both the Espargaro brothers, Danilo Petrucci and Scott Redding while a visibly hurting Dani Pedrosa just scraped into the top ten
Rossi lopped a second off his laptime from yesterday to bag second place behind Lorenzo while reigning champion Marquez was also half a second quicker than his best but the track temperature was only 31°C compared to the 50°C that was reached in free practice two so qualifying pace will likely be slower this afternoon as the tyres struggle to cope.
Smith’s lap was stunningly quick, some 1.3s faster than he managed yesterday and bounced him from out of the top ten but he had more than one lap in the low 1’56s on the scoresheet while Andrea Iannone was again in the top five for the whole session and consistently faster than his team-mate Andrea Dovizioso.
Maverick Vinales also circulated around the top five and was only bounced into sixth place late on. The young Ecstar Suzuki man found 1.4s and used the soft-tyre concession to secure his place in qualifying two while team-mate Aleix Espargaro was dumped out. Yonny Hernandez also used his soft rear Bridgestone to get into the top ten, and he was joined by Hector Barbera who jumped into eighth with his last lap.
Dovizioso stayed in the top ten by the skin of his teeth, taking ninth while Pedrosa, who bashed the leg he injured at Phillip Island some time ago which still has screws in it, took tenth place and improved his pace to a 1’56.471 despite being in pain.
The pace was so hot that neither of the Espargaro brothers made it into qualifying two by right, so this afternoon’s qualifying one scrap has in it some big names and some fast men on soft tyres. Crutchlow and Pol Espargaro - and their medium rear - will have to contend with Aleix Espargaro and Petrucci and their soft rears. This, of course, spells serious trouble for Redding, who had moved as high as eighth but slipped back to 15th.
Eugene Laverty ended as top Open Honda in 18th, upping his pace by 1.5s overnight.
