Movistar Yamaha’s Valentino Rossi - in hospital this time last week and still suffering with breathing problems - put it all to the back of his mind to top the third MotoGP free practice session at Mugello by three-tenths of a second.Rossi threw two soft rear Michelins at a lap in the final ten minutes to drop his laptime from a 1’47.381 to a 1’47.196 and then, with one minute left in front of a very partisan crowd, threw down the gauntlet with a 1’46.543 and is only fractions outside Andrea Iannone’s outright lap record of 1’46.489.
It had looked like a Spanish rout as reigning champion Marc Marquez took top spot with a 1’46.865 and had five of his countrymen behind him. The Repsol Honda man nudged Jorge Lorenzo off top spot and Rossi put his auld enemy’s 1’46.911 into third place, improving his lap time by two seconds from yesterday morning.
Pull and Bear Ducati’s Alvaro Bautista ended the day in fourth place, using soft tyres front and rear to set a 1’46.959 while championship leader Maverick Vinales was late to the time attack party, ending in fifth place on soft tyres but struggling in the final sector.
Estrella Galicia’s Tito Rabat followed Marquez round to claim sixth place on a 1’47.048 and will make his first appearance in qualifying two later today. Ducati test rider Michele Pirro was the only the second Italian in the top seven, setting a 1’47.110 on his penultimate lap.
Team-mate Andrea Dovizioso, who was at the sharp end all of yesterday, couldn’t find enough of a pace increase on the soft tyres and ended in eighth but it still only 0.577s off Rossi’s best.
Dani Pedrosa got a bit tangled up with Karel Abraham on his fastest lap and consequently just scraped into qualifying two in ninth with Aleix Espargaro, who was quickest on a 1’47.173 until five minutes from the end, the last automatic qualifying two contestant.
Johann Zarco missed out on Q2 by 0.084s and yesterday’s fastest man Cal Crutchlow was behind the Monster Yamaha man, unable to up his game enough to get into the top ten but still finished only 0.822 behind Rossi for 12th place after going down at Biondetti on his out lap.
Scott Redding was one place further back in 13th while Octo Ducati’s Danilo Petrucci crashed twice. He went down the first time at Bucine and then again at San Donato, finishing in 14th overall and still only 0.886s off the pace.
Hector Barbera, who was on the pace yesterday, slipped back to 15th and only found two-tenths from yesterday with Jonas Folger in 16th place and a second slower than the leader. Lap record holder Iannone, who is ill to the degree of losing three kilos in the last three days, finished in 17th.
Sam Lowes ended in 20th but only 1.686 off the pace with Jack Miller on the works-spec RC213V behind him. Bradley Smith finished one place further back.
Session top speeds
51 Michele PIRRO ITA Ducati Team DUCATI 353.2 (220.75mph)
4 Andrea DOVIZIOSO ITA Ducati Team DUCATI 352.4
8 Hector BARBERA SPA Reale Avintia Racing DUCATI 351.3
19 Alvaro BAUTISTA SPA Pull&Bear Aspar Team DUCATI 350.6
45 Scott REDDING GBR OCTO Pramac Racing DUCATI 348.9
99 Jorge LORENZO SPA Ducati Team DUCATI 348.9
9 Danilo PETRUCCI ITA OCTO Pramac Racing DUCATI 345.8
46 Valentino ROSSI ITA Movistar Yamaha MotoGP YAMAHA 344.9
26 Dani PEDROSA SPA Repsol Honda Team HONDA 344.8
93 Marc MARQUEZ SPA Repsol Honda Team HONDA 344.6
