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MotoGP Buriram: Dovizioso fastest as Lorenzo suffers massive crash

Ducati’s Andrea Dovizioso snatched top spot on the combined Friday MotoGP timesheets at Buriram with his final lap but it was disaster for team-mate Jorge Lorenzo who suffered a massive crash in the last third of the session.

Lorenzo was spat over the highside of his works Ducati GP18 at turn three with a little over 12 minutes left to run and whacked his already-injured foot.

The crash looked like an old-fashioned two-stroke seizure and the engine dying followed by the squeal of a locking rear wheel before Lorenzo got launched can be heard on on-board footage.

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Bradley Smith, who had a front-row seat, said he thought something had gone wrong with the bike as ‘MotoGP bikes don’t crash like that.’ Lorenzo was taken to the medical centre after trying to remove his right Alpinestars boot while in the gravel. He suffered bruising on his left wrist and right ankle but no fractures. Lorenzo has been transferred to hospital via ambulance for further checks.

While Dovizioso was on top with soft tyres all round, this morning’s fastest man Maverick Vinales stuck to hard Michelins and was able to keep the number one spot right until Dovizioso’s final run. The Spaniard ended just 0.031s slower than Dovi’s 1’31.090.

Britain’s Cal Crutchlow also stuck in a soft rear for his last effort and it was enough to secure third place with a 1’31.164 to move ahead of works Honda counterpart Marc Marquez.

The Repsol Honda man used the same soft rear tyre for the whole session, setting his quickest of 1’31.188 on lap five of 20, but the back hoop looked very second-hand after a practice start resulted in plenty of smoke.

Danilo Petrucci had to resort to his second Pramac Ducati after his number one bike expired early doors. The big Italian, whose aim is to be smaller in 2019, used new softs all round to set a 1’31.238 and claim fifth place.

Andrea Iannone put his Ecstar Suzuki in sixth with a 1’31.860 - still only 0.166s off the pace - after a turn-four crash with Alvaro Bautista in nicking seventh before he crashed in the same place as Lorenzo.

Dani Pedrosa found some pace in the scorching afternoon sun - which saw track temperatures rise above 50°C - to claim eighth with Valentino Rossi, second this morning, taking ninth with a new, two-tier aero package on the Movistar Yamaha.

Fellow Yamaha rider Johann Zarco got himself into the top ten with his last lap on a brand new soft rear with Jack Miller in 11th. Franco Morbidelli, Taka Nakagami, Bradley Smith and Alex Rins completed the top 15 with Scott Redding also suffering a crash at turn four.

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