Jorge Lorenzo has made his intentions very clear in the final session of free practice for the MotoGP class. After setting a solid pace in the first part of the session, the Movistar Yamaha upped the pace to put a huge gap between himself and the rest of the field, setting a new lap record for Brno in the process.
The final minutes of FP3 turned into something of a Yamaha rout. Valentino Rossi put in a fast lap at the very end to take 2nd, over half a second behind his teammate, but ahead of Marc Marquez in 3rd. With qualifying coming up, where Rossi has been weakest in recent years, that single fast lap bodes well for him. Bradley Smith took 4th spot, with a late charge to get in behind Marquez, making it three Yamahas in the top four.
Andrea Iannone was fast throughout FP3, wrapping up 5th spot with a fast lap at the end, finishing ahead of a very impressive Maverick Viñales, the Suzuki rider taking 6th. A fleet of Ducatis followed, with Yonny Hernandez at the helm, the Pramac Ducati finishing ahead of both Hector Barbera on the Avintia Ducati and Andrea Dovizioso on the factory Ducati. Dani Pedrosa rounds out the top 10, after a brave performance on what is obviously a very painful foot, pushing hard to set a fast lap right at the end.
Results:
Pos | No. | Rider | Bike | Time | Diff | Diff Previous |
1 | 99 | Jorge Lorenzo | Yamaha | 1'55.476 | ||
2 | 46 | Valentino Rossi | Yamaha | 1'56.031 | 0.555 | 0.555 |
3 | 93 | Marc Marquez | Honda | 1'56.044 | 0.568 | 0.013 |
4 | 38 | Bradley Smith | Yamaha | 1'56.195 | 0.719 | 0.151 |
5 | 29 | Andrea Iannone | Ducati | 1'56.222 | 0.746 | 0.027 |
6 | 25 | Maverick Viñales | Suzuki | 1'56.271 | 0.795 | 0.049 |
7 | 68 | Yonny Hernandez | Ducati | 1'56.351 | 0.875 | 0.080 |
8 | 8 | Hector Barbera | Ducati | 1'56.400 | 0.924 | 0.049 |
9 | 4 | Andrea Dovizioso | Ducati | 1'56.429 | 0.953 | 0.029 |
10 | 26 | Dani Pedrosa | Honda | 1'56.471 | 0.995 | 0.042 |
In Q1: | ||||||
11 | 44 | Pol Espargaro | Yamaha | 1'56.484 | 1.008 | 0.013 |
12 | 41 | Aleix Espargaro | Suzuki | 1'56.533 | 1.057 | 0.049 |
13 | 35 | Cal Crutchlow | Honda | 1'56.576 | 1.100 | 0.043 |
14 | 9 | Danilo Petrucci | Ducati | 1'56.756 | 1.280 | 0.180 |
15 | 45 | Scott Redding | Honda | 1'56.822 | 1.346 | 0.066 |
16 | 19 | Alvaro Bautista | Aprilia | 1'57.458 | 1.982 | 0.636 |
17 | 63 | Mike Di Meglio | Ducati | 1'57.463 | 1.987 | 0.005 |
18 | 50 | Eugene Laverty | Honda | 1'57.849 | 2.373 | 0.386 |
19 | 6 | Stefan Bradl | Aprilia | 1'57.910 | 2.434 | 0.061 |
20 | 43 | Jack Miller | Honda | 1'58.090 | 2.614 | 0.180 |
21 | 15 | Alex De Angelis | ART | 1'58.239 | 2.763 | 0.149 |
22 | 76 | Loris Baz | Yamaha Forward | 1'58.256 | 2.780 | 0.017 |
23 | 69 | Nicky Hayden | Honda | 1'58.280 | 2.804 | 0.024 |
24 | 17 | Karel Abraham | Honda | 1'58.947 | 3.471 | 0.667 |
25 | 71 | Claudio Corti | Yamaha Forward | 1'59.165 | 3.689 | 0.218 |