Overnight rain and a cold track dampened times in the third MotoGP free practice at Silverstone this morning with only a handful of riders improving their times from yesterday and the top ten that move automatically into qualifying two has not changed.
Laps from the earlier Moto3 session dried the track sufficiently for slicks to be used with half an hour left to run but it wasn’t until the dying minutes that Johann Zarco, equipped with soft Michelins all round, managed to lap faster than he did yesterday, putting in a 2’01.734 for seventh overall.
Monster Yamaha team-mate Jonas Folger, who was suffering with a nasty bug yesterday, also improved to 13th place while Bradley Smith swapped places with Sam Lowes at the bottom of the table, cutting his gap to the leader to 2.290s.
The KTM rider, who is fighting for his seat, spent all of yesterday on the hard rear and only switched to the soft this morning. He improved to a 2’03.187 so free practice four will be crucial for the Oxfordshire rider.
Dani Pedrosa went out with a soft rear to try and get into qualifying two but was two-tenths slower than he managed yesterday, so will have to try and come through the first session later on today, as will Danilo Petrucci.
