Pramac Ducati’s Jack Miller has taken charge of the MotoGP Valencia free practice timesheets but by less than a tenth of a second from this morning’s quickest man Taka Nakagami.
Miller went out for his final run with soft Michelins all round to set a 1’30.663 which pushed Nakagami down to second place despite the LCR Honda man improving his lap to a 1’30.713 on his 12th lap of 20 using a medium/soft combination.
In a session where to the top 19 riders were covered by three-quarters of a second, Pecco Bagnaia found some pace from his Pramac Ducati to bag third place on a 1’30.742 with a hard front coupled with a soft rear.
Miller went out for his final run with soft Michelins all round to set a 1’30.663 which pushed Nakagami down to second place despite the LCR Honda man improving his lap to a 1’30.713 on his 12th lap of 20 using a medium/soft combination.
In a session where to the top 19 riders were covered by three-quarters of a second, Pecco Bagnaia found some pace from his Pramac Ducati to bag third place on a 1’30.742 with a hard front coupled with a soft rear.
Miller began on a mediums all round but then swapped to softs after 15 laps for his time attack. Nakagami switched to a medium rear for his time attack and was only five one-hundredths slower than his best.
Bagnaia was nowhere until he switched to the soft rear and pulled one lap out of the bag. Pol Espargaro was again at the sharp end, taking fourth with a medium/soft combination on his Red Bull KTM.
Johann Zarco’s GP19 Desmosedici was again ahead of the works bikes from Bologna and the Frenchman under the 1’31s barrier with a 1’30.899, 0.027s faster than Andrea Dovizioso.
Departing Honda man Cal Crutchlow, who will replace Jorge Lorenzo as Yamaha’s European tester, bagged seventh with his last lap on a soft rear whole Alex Rins was the first Suzuki man home, using a hard/soft combo for his 1’30.989 in ninth with Franco Morbidelli the fastest Yamaha in eighth on a 1’30.944 set this morning.
Maverick Vinales pinched the tenth and the final provisional qualifying two slot with a 1’31.062 while championship leader Joan Mir missed the cut off, finishing behind Aleix Espargaro in 11th, after a turn-four crash.
HRC tester Stefan Bradl improved his time from this morning by four-tenths for 13th place with Danilo Petrucci and Brad Binder completing the top 15.
Fabio Quartararo’s nightmare continues as he ended his day in 16th and seven-tenths off the pace while Valentino Rossi was one behind Miguel Oliveira in 18th and 0.749s in arrears.
Alex Marquez crashed twice, at turns two and four, but was unhurt.
