Marc Marquez lead FP3 as Dani Pedrosa suffers huge highside

After Friday’s crash fest during MotoGP’s two practice sessions at Sachsenring and consequently lose main title contender Jorge Lorenzo for the weekend, this morning’s third session opened to cold track, just 15°, and under cloudy skies.

However, as soon as the pitlane opened it and the riders headed out for their first out lap and then it started to rain lightly, and all the riders returned to the safety of their pits, as it was too risky to ride on slicks and still to dry for wet tires.

After a few minutes, a few riders headed out to check the conditions and disaster struck Dani Pedrosa. The Repsol Honda rider lost the rear of his RC213V at turn 1 and went into a massive highside, landing hard on his left shoulder and still kneeling in the gravel pit with a panicked look in his eyes, grabbed his left shoulder/collarbone. The rider passed the rest of the session in the Clinica Mobile being assessed, with the latest news reporting that he has no fractures.

Just a few minutes later Bryan Staring crashed out at turn 11, but he managed to walk away, while Hector Barbera was less lucky as he tumbled through the gravel pit hurting his foot or ankle, and limped away assisted by the marshals.

The fastest rider of the session and of the weekend so far and the only rider to break the 1.22 mark was Marc Marquez. The MotoGP rookie blasted out a stunning 1.21.903 as the chequered flag was waved.

Marquez doing a hot lap is pretty normal, but the biggest suprise was Aleix Espargaro who set the second best time with his Aprilia ART and he was just 0.226s from his fellow countryman and once again qualified directly for the Q2.

Valentino Rossi, probably thinking of his team mate’s crash and seeing Dani Pedrosa injured, was more cautious and he was third and followed by a very battered and bruised Cal Crutchlow who shook off both crashes yesterday.

Stefan Bradl who was top rider in yesterday’s FP2 took fifth, and the German, Rossi and Crutchlow were separated by a mere 0.083s.

Alvaro Bautista was sixth ahead of Bradley Smith, with three Ducati riders following, Nicky Hayden, Andrea Iannone, and Andrea Dovizioso closing out the top ten and made it into Q2 because of Lorenzo’s pullout.

2013 MotoGP Sachsenring FP3 results:

01- Marc Marquez – Repsol Honda Team – Honda RC213V – 1’21.903
02- Aleix Espargaro – Power Electronics Aspar – ART GP13 – + 0.226
03- Valentino Rossi – Yamaha Factory Racing – Yamaha YZR M1 – + 0.403
04- Cal Crutchlow – Monster Yamaha Tech 3 – Yamaha YZR M1 – + 0.474
05- Stefan Bradl – LCR Honda MotoGP – Honda RC213V – + 0.486
06- Alvaro Bautista – GO&FUN Honda Gresini – Honda RC213V – + 0.711
07- Bradley Smith – Monster Yamaha Tech 3 – Yamaha YZR M1 – + 0.855
08- Nicky Hayden – Ducati Team – Ducati Desmosedici GP13 – + 0.971
09- Andrea Iannone – Energy T.I. Pramac Racing – Ducati Desmosedici GP13 – + 1.128
10- Andrea Dovizioso – Ducati Team – Ducati Desmosedici GP13 – + 1.160
11- Randy De Puniet – Power Electronics Aspar – ART GP13 – + 1.271

from TWOWHEELSBLOG