Submitted by David Emmett on
Maverick Viñales has taken top spot in the final session of free practice, in a session where both Suzukis showed strong pace throughout. Viñales put in a set of soft tires at the end of FP3 to blast to the fastest lap of the weekend so far, deposing Jorge Lorenzo from top spot.
It was Lorenzo who was most impressive, however, the Movistar Yamaha rider equalling Aleix Espargaro's best lap of the weekend early in the session in a long run of ten laps in the 1'41s. Espargaro ended the session in 3rd, putting two Suzukis in the top ten, and finishing ahead of Andrea Dovizioso on the Ducati. Pol Espargaro was the next fastest Yamaha, the Tech 3 rider pushing hard to get straight through to Q2 at the end of FP3, with Valentino Rossi also ensuring he was into Q2 by bagging 6th spot. Marc Marquez was 7th on the Repsol Honda, but the reigning world champion was concentrating on race pace, doing a long run which was close to the pace of Lorenzo's.
Cal Crutchlow ended within a tenth of Marc Marquez in 8th, and ahead of Yonny Hernandez on the Pramac Ducati. Hernandez looked to be on an even faster lap, but ran into traffic in the shape of Jorge Lorenzo. Bradley Smith was the last rider to make it straight to Q2, the Monster Tech 3 Yamaha man bumping Dani Pedrosa into 11th. He will now have to make it to Q2 via the Q1 session.
Results:
| Pos | No. | Rider | Bike | Time | Diff | Diff Previous |
| 1 | 25 | Maverick Viñales | Suzuki | 1'41.105 | ||
| 2 | 99 | Jorge Lorenzo | Yamaha | 1'41.158 | 0.053 | 0.053 |
| 3 | 41 | Aleix Espargaro | Suzuki | 1'41.232 | 0.127 | 0.074 |
| 4 | 4 | Andrea Dovizioso | Ducati | 1'41.384 | 0.279 | 0.152 |
| 5 | 44 | Pol Espargaro | Yamaha | 1'41.473 | 0.368 | 0.089 |
| 6 | 46 | Valentino Rossi | Yamaha | 1'41.479 | 0.374 | 0.006 |
| 7 | 93 | Marc Marquez | Honda | 1'41.563 | 0.458 | 0.084 |
| 8 | 35 | Cal Crutchlow | Honda | 1'41.644 | 0.539 | 0.081 |
| 9 | 68 | Yonny Hernandez | Ducati | 1'41.658 | 0.553 | 0.014 |
| 10 | 38 | Bradley Smith | Yamaha | 1'41.667 | 0.562 | 0.009 |
| 11 | 26 | Dani Pedrosa | Honda | 1'41.699 | 0.594 | 0.032 |
| 12 | 29 | Andrea Iannone | Ducati | 1'41.864 | 0.759 | 0.165 |
| 13 | 45 | Scott Redding | Honda | 1'41.994 | 0.889 | 0.130 |
| 14 | 8 | Hector Barbera | Ducati | 1'42.222 | 1.117 | 0.228 |
| 15 | 9 | Danilo Petrucci | Ducati | 1'42.381 | 1.276 | 0.159 |
| 16 | 6 | Stefan Bradl | Yamaha Forward | 1'42.458 | 1.353 | 0.077 |
| 17 | 19 | Alvaro Bautista | Aprilia | 1'42.519 | 1.414 | 0.061 |
| 18 | 63 | Mike Di Meglio | Ducati | 1'42.623 | 1.518 | 0.104 |
| 19 | 69 | Nicky Hayden | Honda | 1'42.723 | 1.618 | 0.100 |
| 20 | 43 | Jack Miller | Honda | 1'42.805 | 1.700 | 0.082 |
| 21 | 76 | Loris Baz | Yamaha Forward | 1'42.817 | 1.712 | 0.012 |
| 22 | 17 | Karel Abraham | Honda | 1'43.013 | 1.908 | 0.196 |
| 23 | 50 | Eugene Laverty | Honda | 1'43.267 | 2.162 | 0.254 |
| 24 | 15 | Alex De Angelis | ART | 1'44.571 | 3.466 | 1.304 |
| 25 | 33 | Marco Melandri | Aprilia | 1'45.206 | 4.101 | 0.635 |
Comments
Q1
Did Pedrosa use the new exhaust in FP3? I couldn't tell from any camera angles whether he uses the updated swingarm, either.
Q1 might be quite a show, Dani and Redding on very similar Hondas, and the Ducatis of Iannone, Petrucci, and Barbera on the softest tires chasing the top 2 spots.
Half second gap in FP3, from
Half second gap in FP3, from Dani to Hector thou (I assume he used a soft in that session), should between Dani, Scott and Andrea.
Has there been any talk about
Has there been any talk about Melandri and that meeting he was rumoured to have with Aprillia after Mugello? He was almost 3 seconds slower then Bautista in FP3