Jorge Lorenzo comfortably topped the times in the third free practice session for the Tissot Australian MotoGP at Phillip Island.
The double world champion posted his personal best effort mid-way through the session to knock Honda’s Marc Marquez off the top spot.
Following his crash yesterday, the Yamaha man elected to use the extra soft Bridgestone front tyre instead of the new asymmetric option, which proved to be the tyre of choice for the majority of the field.
At the chequered flag, Lorenzo proved to be almost three tenths quicker Marquez with Pramac Ducati’s Andrea Iannone in third.
However, the big surprise was Dani Pedrosa’s continued lack of pace around the 4.4km circuit. The Spaniard finished the session in 10th spot but his lack of pace in combined times has forced the Honda man to run in Q1 later this afternoon.
Valentino Rossi set the fourth fastest time ahead of the Monster Yamaha duo of Pol Espargaro and Bradley Smith.
Forward Yamaha’s Aleix Espargaro was seventh in front of Ducati’s Cal Crutchlow and LCR Honda’s Stefan Bradl.
MotoGP Free Practice 3 Results
| Position | Rider | Team | Time | Gap |
| 1 | Jorge Lorenzo | Yamaha | 1:29.157s | – |
| 2 | Marc Marquez | Honda | 1:29.454s | 0.297s |
| 3 | Andrea Iannone | Pramac Ducati | 1:29.491s | 0.334s |
| 4 | Valentino Rossi | Yamaha | 1:29.495s | 0.338s |
| 5 | Pol Espargaro | Tech 3 Yamaha | 1:29.635s | 0.478s |
| 6 | Bradley Smith | Tech 3 Yamaha | 1:29.661s | 0.504s |
| 7 | Aleix Espargaro | Forward Yamaha | 1:29.802s | 0.645s |
| 8 | Cal Crutchlow | Ducati | 1:29.810s | 0.653s |
| 9 | Stefan Bradl | LCR Honda | 1:29.879s | 0.722s |
| 10 | Dani Pedrosa | Honda | 1:29.976s | 0.819s |
| 11 | Andrea Dovizioso | Ducati | 1:30.248s | 1.091s |
| 12 | Scott Redding | Gresini Honda | 1:30.271s | 1.114s |
| 13 | Yonny Hernandez | Pramac Ducati | 1:30.406s | 1.249s |
| 14 | Alvaro Bautista | Gresini Honda | 1:30.468s | 1.311s |
| 15 | Hiroshi Aoyama | Aspar Honda | 1:30.527s | 1.370s |
| 16 | Alex de Angelis | Forward Yamaha | 1:30.625s | 1.468s |
| 17 | Hector Barbera | Avintia Racing | 1:30.663s | 1.506s |
| 18 | Karel Abraham | Cardion Honda | 1:30.757s | 1.600s |
| 19 | Nicky Hayden | Aspar Honda | 1:30.946s | 1.789s |
| 20 | Danilo Petrucci | IodaRacing Project | 1:31.382s | 2.225s |
| 21 | Mike Di Meglio | Avintia Kawasaki | 1:31.631s | 2.474s |
| 22 | Michael Laverty | PBM Aprilia | 1:31.984s | 2.827s |
| 23 | Broc Parkes | PBM Aprilia | 1:32.366s | 3.209s |
Discussion about this post