Movistar Yamaha’s Jorge Lorenzo charged to the top of the Valencia MotoGP timesheets this afternoon, setting a 1’31.111 to go 0.266 clear of second-placed Dani Pedrosa while Valentino Rossi sensibly spent much of the session working on race setup but banged in a 1’31.475 late on to take fourth place behind Andrea Iannone’s soft-tyred works Ducati.
In the heat of the afternoon session, at the same time the race will be run on Sunday, Lorenzo used a medium rear/soft front combination of Bridgestones to set his time at the start of a run of six laps which includes four more laps in the 1’31s bracket with a total of eight for the session. Pedrosa, who stuck to the medium Bridgestones all round, had four in the 1’31s. Iannone also had four in the 1’31s which means he should have good pace come race day.
Rossi began his session using a hard rear/soft front combination and stuck in five 1’31s laps before pitting and changing to a medium/aysmmetric combination which enabled him to up his game to a 1’31.475 in the middle of a three lap run, also all in the 1’31s, so The Doctor has at least a choice of two combinations to use in his charge from the back of the grid.
Marc Marquez, who loses his world championship in two days, stayed with the medium/medium tyres and slipped back to fifth place on the sheets. His thad six laps in the 1’31s, so the four Aliens plus Iannone are evenly matched for the time being but Rossi is out of the equation when it comes to qualfying tomorrow.
Pramac Ducati’s Danilo Petrucci clambered into sixth place late on with a 1'31.575, just head of Pol Espargaro’s Monster Yamaha. The Spaniard had been as high as third early doors and set his best of 1’31.674 on his 11th lap of 17. Brother Aleix, on the Ecstar Suzuki, was next along and only 0.004s slower than his younger sibling.
Cal Crutchlow was the best of the Brits and the non-works Hondas in ninth place on a 1’31.803 and cut his gap to the leaders by four-tenths, finishing on a 1’31.803. Maverick Vinales completed the top ten with a 1’31.986.
Hector Barbera continues to be the fastest Open class bike, ending the second session in 11th place, just ahead of Ducati test rider Michele Pirro and Yonny Hernandez. Andrea Dovizioso and Bradley Smith are struggling down in 14th and 15th respectively but not as much as Scott Redding, who is mired in 21st place and more than two seconds off the pace. Eugene Laverty finished in 24th.
