Britain’s Bradley Smith has again strengthened his bargaining position for a new contract with the Monster Yamaha MotoGP team by harrassing reigning champion Marc Marquez for top spot in the third free practice session.
Smith threw his softest-available Bridgestones in with five minutes of the period left and put in a 1’32.241 to only trail the Repsol Honda man by 0.029s. Ducati’s Andrea Iannone also put in his soft tyre, which is a compound softer than Smith’s to bag third as the chequered flag came out with a 1’32.718 but is a full three-tenths behind the front two.
Marquez was devastatingly consistent in the session, sticking to medium tyres front and rear, putting in nine 1’32s laps compared to Lorenzo’s three. Smith managed only one, his fastest.
Marquez’ team-mate Dani Pedrosa also put in a flier at the death with a 1’32.759 which was enough to demote yesterday’s fastest man Jorge Lorenzo to fourth place. His team-mate Valentino Rossi thought he was secure with a 1’32.981 with six minutes left as he hopped from 11th to third but he slowly slipped back down the order to end in ninth and only just squeaked into qualifying two by right.
Cal Crutchlow also put in a stormer to bag sixth place in the session. The CWM LCR Honda man is half a second slower than Marquez on a 1’32.851 while Aleix Espargaro clawed his way into the top ten with his last lap on the soft tyre to take seventh. Brother Pol put in a 1’32.945 to sit in fourth with four minutes left but, like yesterday, promptly lobbed it.
Maverick Vinales, on the second Ecstar Suzuki, claimed the final qualifying two spot in tenth behind Rossi which dumped out Pramac Ducati’s Yonny Hernandez. Andrea Dovizioso will also have to go through qualfying one as he ended down in 12th, one place ahead of Scott Redding who ended eight-tenths off the pace in 13th.
Eugene Laverty found some pace over night and jumped up to 17th place with a 1’34.036 to sit behind Jack Miller in the Open Honda battle. Hector Barbera was the fastest overall of the Open bikes.
