from Twowheelsblog
After making a clean sweep in Friday’s practices at the Circuit of the Americas, Marc Marquez’ start in the third and final free pratice was marred after just five minutes when he lost his Honda entering turn 19 and trying to save it, the rear grip returned (the tires were already used) turning his RC213V into a bucking bronco and highsiding the rookie who ended up a little battered and limping, but he was able to return to track and began whipping around the circuit as if nothing happened, and lowering the lap time to 2.04.991 and then bettering himself by almost two tenths to finish in 2.04.795
With the track offering more rubber, the riders began to slowly shave off precious tenths trying to catch up with Marquez’ monster lap times, but is was Dani Pedrosa who finally put a real dent into his team mate as he finished for the first time this weekend on top of the timesheets with a final flying hot lap in 2.04.408, sending a warning shot to Marquez.
Jorge Lorenzo took third with his last lap demoting Cal Crutchlow to fourth and the reigning World champion was able to shorten the gap to 0.887s, losing time in the middle of the circuit.
Stefan Bradl dropped to fifth followed by an excellent Andrea Dovizioso who put in a last lap to take sixth ahead of Valentino Rossi who worked on corner entry braking. Stefan Bradl was eighth, while two Ducati riders Nicky Hayden and Ben Spies closed out the top ten and were the last two riders to qualify for this afternoon’s QP2.
Aleix Espargaro was the fastest CRT rider again and he was 11th ahead of prototype riders Bradley Smith and Andrea Iannone and these three will probably be facing off in QP1 trying to get into QP2 with maybe the addition of Randy de Puniet who will have to shave between five tenths to one second to stay with small group of riders.
2013 MotoGP Austin FP3 results:
01- Dani Pedrosa – Repsol Honda Team – Honda RC213V – 2’04.408
02- Marc Marquez – Repsol Honda Team – Honda RC213V – + 0.387
03- Jorge Lorenzo – Yamaha Factory Racing – Yamaha YZR M1 – + 0.887
04- Cal Crutchlow – Monster Yamaha Tech 3 – Yamaha YZR M1 – + 1.222
05- Stefan Bradl – LCR Honda MotoGP – Honda RC213V – + 1.500
06- Andrea Dovizioso – Ducati Team – Ducati Desmosedici GP13 – + 1.555
07- Valentino Rossi – Yamaha Factory Racing – Yamaha YZR M1 – + 1.765
08- Alvaro Bautista – GO&FUN Honda Gresini – Honda RC213V – + 1.892
09- Nicky Hayden – Ducati Team – Ducati Desmosedici GP13 – + 2.214
10- Ben Spies – Ignite Pramac Racing – Ducati Desmosedici GP13 – + 2.454
02- Marc Marquez – Repsol Honda Team – Honda RC213V – + 0.387
03- Jorge Lorenzo – Yamaha Factory Racing – Yamaha YZR M1 – + 0.887
04- Cal Crutchlow – Monster Yamaha Tech 3 – Yamaha YZR M1 – + 1.222
05- Stefan Bradl – LCR Honda MotoGP – Honda RC213V – + 1.500
06- Andrea Dovizioso – Ducati Team – Ducati Desmosedici GP13 – + 1.555
07- Valentino Rossi – Yamaha Factory Racing – Yamaha YZR M1 – + 1.765
08- Alvaro Bautista – GO&FUN Honda Gresini – Honda RC213V – + 1.892
09- Nicky Hayden – Ducati Team – Ducati Desmosedici GP13 – + 2.214
10- Ben Spies – Ignite Pramac Racing – Ducati Desmosedici GP13 – + 2.454
