Movistar Yamaha’s Maverick Vinales demolished the Le Mans MotoGP outright lap record in this morning’s third free practice where the top 16 were covered by less than one second and five other riders under the existing pole record.
With track temperatures much colder than yesterday afternoon, the entire field was out with soft Michelins front and rear, and Vinales made the most of it with his final lap, putting in a 1’31.619 to head Marc Marquez by a little over a tenth with Valentino Rossi in third 0.036s further back.
Marquez set his time on the Repsol Honda after falling at Dunlop, wearing a hole in the elbow of the leathers and knocking the left wing off his RC213V but it didn’t faze the reigning champion as he booked his qualifying two place with a 1’31.774.
Rossi had been in the driving seat with one minute left on a 1’31.810 but he slipped back to a little under two-tenths behind his works team-mate. Hometown hero Johann Zarco ended in fourth place with a lap 0.056s slower than Rossi while yesterday’s fastest man Andrea Dovizioso bagged fifth place on a 1’31.936 with his time from yesterday.
Dovizioso had set a new outright record yesterday after going underneath team-mate Jorge Lorenzo’s 1’31.975 set in 2016 by half a tenth but that was smashed by Vinales today and, with warmer temperatures in qualifying, there could be a 1’30s lap in the offing.
Lorenzo himself was only just outside his own old record on a 1'31.981 to secure sixth place but he was chased hard by Jack Miller - in the frame to replace the Spaniard in the works team - who set a 1'32.064.
Aleix Espargaro hopped into the top ten with a late lap, bagging eighth with a 1'32.135 while Tito Rabat pushed his way into qualifying two with his final lap. And that lap was responsible for Britain's Cal Crutchlow missing out on qualifying two by right.
The LCR Honda man was sitting in tenth, just behind Andrea Iannone but Rabat pushed him into 11th place and Crutchlow will now have to battle it out in qualifying one. He has Danilo Petrucci, Alex Rins and Pol Espargaro for company with Alvaro Bautista beating Dani Pedrosa - who had an early crash - for 15th.