Marquez leads ultra-close FP3
Marc Marquez led a top five covered by a tiny 0.062s during Saturday morning's FP3 for the Dutch MotoGP at Assen.
Having stuck with hard tyres throughout Friday, Marquez unleashed his true speed with a 1m 33.341s using new soft rear and medium front tyres on his final run of the session.
Marc Marquez led a top five covered by a tiny 0.062s during Saturday morning's FP3 for the Dutch MotoGP at Assen.
Having stuck with hard tyres throughout Friday, Marquez unleashed his true speed with a 1m 33.341s using new soft rear and medium front tyres on his final run of the session.
But it was only enough to put the Repsol Honda rider 0.001s ahead of Friday leader Maverick Vinales, the Yamaha rider using soft tyres front and rear.
LCR Honda's Cal Crutchlow had been the first rider to finally beat Vinales' Friday best, with only four-minutes of the session to go.
The Englishman finished 0.006s from Marquez, with Yamaha's Valentino Rossi 0.047s behind and Suzuki's Andrea Iannone 0.062s.
Crutchlow, Rossi and Iannone all used medium front-soft rear tyres for their best laps.
Jorge Lorenzo, seeking a third victory in a row, was the fastest Ducati rider this morning in sixth (+0.446s).
After running his favoured soft tyres for much of Friday, the Spaniard tried the hard rear this morning before changing to new softs for his time attack.
Fellow GP18 riders Danilo Petrucci and Andrea Dovizioso failed to improve, but Petrucci remained the fastest Ducati so far this weekend in sixth overall while Dovi was tenth.
Between factory team-mates Lorenzo and Dovizioso on the combined timesheets were Aleix Espargaro (Aprilia) and Alvaro Bautista (Angel Nieto Ducati).
KTM's Pol Espargaro was only 0.574s from Marquez, but still didn't make the combined top ten!
He will be joined in Qualifying 1 by the likes of Johann Zarco (Monster Yamaha Tech3), Jack Miller (Pramac Ducati), Alex Rins (Suzuki) and Dani Pedrosa (Repsol Honda).
Marc VDS rider Franco Morbidelli walked away from a fast accident, but missed the end of the session while undergoing medical checks and has now been declared unfit to continue due to a broken bone in his hand.
Morbidelli, currently leading the rookie of the year contest by two points over Hafizh Syahrin, is tipped to join the rumoured Petronas Yamaha project next season.
Tech3's Syahrin was 17th overall after FP3.
