MotoGP Valencia: Marquez Leads Vinales In Third Practice

The battle heats up for the grand finale of this wonderful MotoGP season at Valencia with Marquez leading the session from Vinales.

By Sreejith

Published: Saturday, November 12, 2016, 16:38 [IST]

Repsol Honda rider Marc Marquez strikes back in the third free practice in Valencia. He tops Suzuki's Maverick Vinales by a little over a tenth of a second.

MotoGP Valencia: Marquez Leads Vinales In Third Practice

Marquez was able to beat the time set by Friday's fastest man Jorge Lorenzo. Yesterday, Lorenzo posted a 1m30.463s lap and set the fastest lap of the day. Marquez was able to beat this benchmark in the closing minutes of the FP3.

The Spaniard was improving his pace lap by lap towards the end of the session. He recorded a 1m30.258s lap to become the fastest man of the weekend.

Only Vinales was able to close the gap on Marquez in the dying minutes. The future Yamaha rider was 0.103s slower than his compatriot but became the second fastest rider of the session.

Malaysian GP winner Andrea Dovizioso ended the session as the third fastest, only 0.385s off the pace. The Italian was followed by still-recovering Dani Pedrosa on the second factory Honda.

The top six was completed by the Friday's fastest man Lorenzo and Tech 3 Yamaha's Pol Espargaro respectively. They were followed by the second Suzuki of Aleix Espargaro and works Ducati rider, Andrea Iannone.

The ninth spot was sealed by the Italian veteran Valentino Rossi. He managed to get into the automatic Q2 with this late effort and he is only 0.594s off the pace.

The tenth spot was claimed by Bradley Smith (Tech 3 Yamaha). Cal Crutchlow and Scott Redding will have to fight it out in Q1 as they finished 11th and 12th respectively in the session.