Reigning MotoGP World Champion Jorge Lorenzo marmalised the opposition in the third free practice session at Brno this morning, setting the fastest ever lap of the circuit to finish three-quarters of a second quicker than the pack.
Lorenzo put in a 1’54.791, using the softer-option Michelin rear, with only a minute left to run and was even faster in the first two sectors of the subsequent lap but hit traffic and was forced to knock it off.
Ducati’s Andrea Iannone spent most of his session working on tyre life with the soft rear and joined the time attack late on, setting a 1’55.535 on his 15th lap to take second place after crashing at turn 13 early on.
Yesterday’s fastest man Marc Marquez bolted on a set of large wings for his last run and they took him to 1’55.562 to end 0.071s slower than Iannone. The former champion was off the pace, riding round in 1’57s until the beginning of his final run when he dropped into the 1’55s.
Maverick Vinales ended his third run out of four with a 1’55.604 which was good enough fourth place while early pace from Valentino meant he climbed up the order but then slipped back to end almost a second slower than his Movistar Yamaha team-mate.
The Doctor was out early on the soft rear Michelin and set six-lap run in the 1’56s before changing to the medium rear and then switched back to a new soft for his best lap of 1’55.708 which was enough to hold off a charging Aleix Espargaro on the Ecstar Suzuki.
Andrea Dovizioso ended his session in seventh and was unable to break into the 1’55s, never mind the 1’54s, but was two-tenths quicker than yesterday. Hector Barbera was unable to get a tow today so his time from free practice two remained for eighth but he did manage to get in Dani Pedrosa’s way as he fought to find his way into pitlane.
The second Repsol Honda man ended in 12th place and has Scott Redding and Bradley Smith for company in qualifying one. Cal Crutchlow was the last of the automatic qualifying two men as he diced with Pol Espargaro for ninth and tenth places.
