Movistar Yamaha’s Jorge Lorenzo obliterated the Misano MotoGP outright lap record on his way to the top of the free practice three timesheets this morning, setting a 1’32.192 to go almost three-quarters of a second quicker than Marc Marquez’ existing mark.
Lorenzo, who wasn’t using the wings he debuted yesterday, used a hard front-medium rear tyre combination to set his quickest time but second-placed man Marquez with some fast times of his own which culminated in a 1’32.421 for the reigning champion.
A late lap from Valentino Rossi saw the hometown hero leap into third place with a 1’32.793, edging the works Ducati of Andrea Dovizioso into fourth. Dovizioso put his soft-tyre option to good use with a 1’32.802 which had been good enough for third until The Doctor put in his time.
Dani Pedrosa put in a quick lap early doors which was enough for second place but he then slipped down the order. The Repsol Honda man bounced back late on with 1’32.855 to claim fifth place while Michele Pirro, on the Ducati GP15 test mule which has a different frame and exhaust to the other works bikes, left until his lap lap to bag sixth place on a 1’32.930 - just outside the former lap record.
Bradley Smith was fast through the whole session and was up as high as fourth with only a few minutes left but slipped back to seventh in the dying seconds. The Monster Yamaha man was only 0.030s slower than Pirro on a 1’32.960, set on his 22nd lap, while Andrea Iannone had to use his second bike to take ninth place after a blow up early on.
Silverstone hero Danoli Petrucci took the last automatic qualifying two spot when Cal Crutchlow was edged into 11th by Pirro’s do-or-die final effort. Aleix Espargaro took 12th with team-mate Maverick Vinales just behind, neither able to put the soft-tyre advantage to good use.
Scott Redding showed some good early pace and was sitting in seventh on a 1’33.335 with nine minutes left but such was the late-session pace, he found himself down in 14th when the chequered flag came out. Yonny Hernandez completed the top 15.
Hector Barbera heads the Open class times in 16th place while Eugene Laverty suffered an early crash at turn 15 and could only finish in 23rd place.
