2011 Catalunya MotoGP FP3 Result: Stoner Leads, Lorenzo Closes

Casey Stoner continues to lead the MotoGP class at Barcelona, topping the final session of free practice at the circuit, but his outright domination is over. The surprise is that it is the Yamahas which have closed the gap, Jorge Lorenzo getting to within an eighth of a second of the Repsol Honda rider. Marco Simoncelli remains fast, finishing in 3rd, but he has been less successful in closing the gap to Stoner, while Lorenzo's factory Yamaha teammate Ben Spies showed a similar improvement to the Spaniard, taking nearly a second off his deficit to the fastest man Stoner.

Andrea Dovizioso ended the session in 5th spot, ahead of top Ducati Nicky Hayden, who made almost as big an improvement as Spies. Cal Crutchlow put in another outstanding performance to finish in 7th, nearly half a second quicker than Valentino Rossi on the second Marlboro Ducati. Rossi had another crash during the session, losing the front very fast and seemingly without reason in turn 5, but as both Loris Capirossi and Randy de Puniet crashed there, the corner seemed to have a penchant for collecting Ducatis. Capirossi ended the session in 9th, ahead of Alvaro Bautista on the Rizla Suzuki.

Results:

Pos	No.	Rider	Bike	Time	Diff	Diff Previous
1	27	Casey STONER	HONDA	1'42.691
2	1	Jorge LORENZO	YAMAHA	1'42.813	0.122	0.122
3	58	Marco SIMONCELLI	HONDA	1'43.130	0.439	0.317
4	11	Ben SPIES	YAMAHA	1'43.478	0.787	0.348
5	4	Andrea DOVIZIOSO	HONDA	1'43.628	0.937	0.150
6	69	Nicky HAYDEN	DUCATI	1'43.669	0.978	0.041
7	35	Cal CRUTCHLOW	YAMAHA	1'43.883	1.192	0.214
8	46	Valentino ROSSI	DUCATI	1'44.364	1.673	0.481
9	65	Loris CAPIROSSI	DUCATI	1'44.457	1.766	0.093
10	19	Alvaro BAUTISTA	SUZUKI	1'44.504	1.813	0.047
11	17	Karel ABRAHAM	DUCATI	1'44.510	1.819	0.006
12	14	Randy DE PUNIET	DUCATI	1'44.541	1.850	0.031
13	7	Hiroshi AOYAMA	HONDA	1'44.642	1.951	0.101
14	8	Hector BARBERA	DUCATI	1'44.762	2.071	0.120
15	24	Toni ELIAS	HONDA	1'44.963	2.272	0.201
	5	Colin EDWARDS	YAMAHA