from Twowheelsblog
This evening’s third free practice Qatar turned into a pseudo qualifying session with riders putting in hot laps instead of concentrating on set-up or doing consecutive runs due to the new qualifying format that sees the first ten riders going directly into QP2 based on their combined practice lap times.
In this time attack, Marc Marquez once again topped the time sheets with a best lap 1’56.084 and pipping Jorge Lorenzo by just one thousandth of a second in his last flying lap demoting the Yamaha rider to second, and they were followed by Cal Crutchlow and Valentino Rossi, who spent most of his session deciding on which tire compound to use for Sunday’s race, as it looks like the softer version won’t last the distance for him.
Ducati’s Andrea Dovizioso had a fantastic session as he finished fifth overall, but he was just 0.333s from Marquez and 0.001s from Rossi, but all the Ducati riders will probably have to use the harder compound as they have excessive tire with the softer version. Dani Pedrosa seems to have partially solved his entry corner issues as he closed the gap to just 0.418s, but still ran off track several times.
Alvaro Bautista also made a big jump forward and he was 7th, while Nicky Hayden took 8th. MotoGP rookie Bradley Smith also did a stunning lap that put him into 9th, and LCR Honda’s Stefan Bradl closed out the top ten that put him into QP2 and their were 10 riders with one second.
Those who didn’t make it into the ten will go into QP1 and that includes both Pramac riders Andrea Iannone and Ben Spies and the eleven CRT riders. The two fastest riders in QP1 will then able to go into the fifteen minute QP2.
MotoGP Qatar FP3 results:
01- Marc Marquez – Repsol Honda Team – Honda RC213V – 1’56.084
02- Jorge Lorenzo – Yamaha Factory Racing – Yamaha YZR M1 – + 0.001
03- Cal Crutchlow – Monster Yamaha Tech 3 – Yamaha YZR M1 – + 0.242
04- Valentino Rossi – Yamaha Factory Racing – Yamaha YZR M1 – + 0.332
05- Andrea Dovizioso – Ducati Team – Ducati Desmosedici GP13 – + 0.333
06- Dani Pedrosa – Repsol Honda Team – Honda RC213V – + 0.418
07- Alvaro Bautista – GO&FUN Honda Gresini – Honda RC213V – + 0.488
08- Nicky Hayden – Ducati Team – Ducati Desmosedici GP13 – + 0.586
09- Bradley Smith – Monster Yamaha Tech 3 – Yamaha YZR M1 – + 0.817
10- Stefan Bradl – LCR Honda MotoGP – Honda RC213V – + 0.900
02- Jorge Lorenzo – Yamaha Factory Racing – Yamaha YZR M1 – + 0.001
03- Cal Crutchlow – Monster Yamaha Tech 3 – Yamaha YZR M1 – + 0.242
04- Valentino Rossi – Yamaha Factory Racing – Yamaha YZR M1 – + 0.332
05- Andrea Dovizioso – Ducati Team – Ducati Desmosedici GP13 – + 0.333
06- Dani Pedrosa – Repsol Honda Team – Honda RC213V – + 0.418
07- Alvaro Bautista – GO&FUN Honda Gresini – Honda RC213V – + 0.488
08- Nicky Hayden – Ducati Team – Ducati Desmosedici GP13 – + 0.586
09- Bradley Smith – Monster Yamaha Tech 3 – Yamaha YZR M1 – + 0.817
10- Stefan Bradl – LCR Honda MotoGP – Honda RC213V – + 0.900
