Lorenzo On Record Pace Ahead of Qualifying

Aug 15, 2015
4 min read

Air and track temperatures were a little lower this morning for the all-important third free practice session.

Jorge Lorenzo was quickest after yesterday's two sessions and continued that form in FP3 with the fastest ever lap around the Brno circuit. The Movistar Yamaha rider guided his YZR-M1 to a mightily impressive time of 1:55.476 to go half a-second clear of the rest of the field. Not only that but he was ultra-consistent, setting a string of high to mid 1:56 laps on his second run of the 45-minute session. Whether that pace will remain for qualifying and the race remain uncertain; it's due to get hotter this afternoon, which may go against the Yamaha slightly works best in the cooler conditions.

Valentino Rossi may have been 0.5s adrift of his team-mate, but he has a lot of reasons to be cheerful. The Italian put in a lap of 1:56.031 right at the end of the session to leap up to 2nd on the time sheets. He too set a succession of high 1:56 laps, though not as many as Lorenzo nor as quick. At present Rossi resides second best in the Yamaha camp, but the groundwork for a strong weekend going forward has been laid. What will be telling will be the 30-minute FP4 session prior to qualifying, and it will be there that we will see just what the Yamaha's can do on race pace.

Marc Marquez completed the top three, but lacked the same speed as the pair in front of him. This could partly be as a result of the cooler conditions not suiting the Honda as well, because the RC213V tends to work best when there is a bit of movement at the rear which is what will happen when it is hot. Marquez will be hoping for soaring heat or rain on Sunday as it looks that fighting for the win may be out of the question under normal circumstances. Team-mate Dani Pedrosa rode in a considerable amount of pain after hurting his foot in a crash yesterday. He struggled to match his pace from FP1, but just managed to get inside the top ten and so will not have to go through QP1.

Bradley Smith sat outside the top ten for some time in FP3, but really ramped up his pace towards the end to go an impressive 4th with a 1:56.195 which is only just over a tenth shy of Marquez.

It wasn't all smiles at Tech 3 Yamaha though. Pol Espargaro failed to match the pace of his team-mate and dropped out of the top ten after a last-gasp lap from the Avintia Ducati of Hector Barbera to go 8th pushed the Spaniard down to 11th. He wasn't the only big-name casualty of FP3. Cal Crutchlow and Aleix Espargaro will have to contest the first qualifying segment.

Andrea Dovizioso was close to joining that group, but a late lap on the soft tyre put him 9th, a disappointing result given that both Ducati GP15s were in the top five at one stage. Andrea Iannone was 5th quickest. Interestingly both seemed to be much quicker on the medium tyre suggesting that it was maybe still too hot for the soft tyre, for that bike anyway. Dovi opted to focus much of his time on the new bike, whilst Iannone seemed to prefer the older one.

Maverick Vinales was very impressive this morning in 6th. The Suzuki does suit the twisty nature of the circuit, but it is in the point and squirt points that we expected them to struggle. But because they can apply more of their power out of the turns without much electronic interference, unlike some of the other bikes, they're able to punch out of corners well. Furthermore, both GSX-RRs were quick on the medium tyre as well as the soft. A good weekend is certainly on the cards after a difficult Indianapolis.

Jack Miller's preparations for qualifying took a small hit when the Australian crashed at turn three in the final five-minutes of the session. He was unhurt and ended the morning 20th.

FP3 Result

QP2 Runners

1st Jorge Lorenzo, Movistar Yamaha MotoGP, 1:55.476

2nd Valentino Rossi, Movistar Yamaha MotoGP, 1:56.031

3rd Marc Marquez, Repsol Honda Team, 1:56.044

4th Bradley Smith, Monster Yamaha Tech 3, 1:56.195

5th Andrea Iannone, Ducati Team, 1:56.222

6th Maverick Vinales, Team Suzuki Ecstar, 1:56.271

7th Yonny Hernandez, Octo Pramac Racing Ducati, 1:56.351

8th Hector Barbera, Avintia Racing Ducati, 1:56.400

9th Andrea Dovizioso, Ducati Team, 1:56.429

10th Dani Pedrosa, Repsol Honda Team, 1:56.471