Movistar Yamaha’s Jorge Lorenzo just edged ahead of Marc Marquez in the third MotoGP free practice session at Le Mans this morning, using the soft Bridgestone tyre to great effect on his last lap to better the Repsol Honda man by 0.024s.
The Spaniard found two tenths of a second in the tricky final sector to top the timesheets with a 1’33.021 and bounce his way from the edge of dropping into qualifying one into top spot which pushed Pol Espargaro into third after Marquez had upped his game with a 1’33.045.
The Monster Yamaha man found a stack of time overnight to finish just two tenths behind Marquez on the combined timesheet and he was visibly smoother and more controlled to ensure a fast time on the soft tyre.
Alvro Bautista is consistenly quick on the Go&Fun Honda and less than a tenth behind Espargaro while Valentino Rossi jumped from tenth last night to fifth, finding nine-tenths of a second overnight to put himself into contention.
Stefan Bradl was quicker on the satellite LCR Honda than Dani Pedrosa on the works Repsol Honda while Andrea Iannone’s time from yesterday, when he got a tow from Pedrosa, remained enough to keep him in eighth.
Bradley Smith stuck his Monster Yamaha in ninth with Andrea Dovizioso the last of the automatic qualifying two men. Aleix Espargaro will have to fight it out with Cal Crutchlow in qualifying one for a spot in the last scrap, but Yonny Hernandez may also be a wildcard as he was faster than Crutchlow in third practice.
Scott Redding was 17th and unable to improve on his time from yesterday while Michael Laverty was also slower.
