Jerez MotoGP FP3: A very lively session and a new record to boot!

Some work more on their race pace than on the time, it is always difficult to learn lessons from the first day of a Grand Prix.

Nevertheless, Friday in Jerez gave us a glimpse of the domination of the official Hondas despite the misstep Marc Marquez, domination for the moment only contested by 2 individuals, Johann zarco et Andrea Iannone.

4 tenths behind, we find the two official Ducatis, with a Jorge Lorenzo made optimistic by 2 mysterious elements which allow it to better exit turns (see here).

They are followed by Jack Miller then the 2 official Yamahas for whom Jerez seems to constitute a new disillusionment after the strong hopes generated in the United States. The fact that no Yamaha rode on the Andalusian circuit during the winter tests is not really an explanation, given the performance of Johann zarco...

Espargaro Pol hoists the first of 3 KTMs into the top 10.

On the weather side, if the rain expected yesterday afternoon did not disrupt the session, it did arrive at the end of the day, and the new surface of the Jerez-Angel Nieto circuit will undoubtedly require a little rubber this morning before being efficient.

The sky is absolutely clear, and the temperatures are only 17° in the air and 21° on the ground.

https://twitter.com/circuitodejerez/status/992648702920740864

Here are the references available before the 45 minutes of this FP3:

Jerez MotoGP™	2017	2018
FP1	1'51.648 Dani Pedrosa (See here)	1'39.268 Andrea Dovizioso (See here)
FP2	1'39.420 Dani Pedrosa (See here)	1'38.614 Cal Crutchlow (See here)
FP3	1'38.580 Dani Pedrosa (See here)
FP4	1'39.467 Marc Marquez (See here)
Qualification 1	1'38.919 Andrea Iannone (See here)
Qualification 2	1'38.249 Dani Pedrosa (See here)
Warm Up	1'39.433 Maverick Vinales (See here)
Course	Pedrosa, Marquez, Lorenzo (See here)
All time lap record	1'37.910 Jorge Lorenzo 2015

 

Once again, it is Jorge Lorenzo who sets off first when the red lights go out.

We discover the tires which are mostly a combination of medium at the front, medium at the rear.

During his first flying lap, he achieved 1'39.141 while Dani Pedrosa returns to the box after only one lap.

After 4 rounds, Marc Márquez precedes by a thousandth an astonishing Alex Espargaro whose Aprilia RS-GP has received new parts and which thus provisionally qualifies for Q2 to the detriment of Pol Espargaro, but the Honda driver did not stop there and recorded a 1'38.549 during his 5th pass.

At the end of the first run, we observe the following hierarchy: Marc Márquez, Aleix Espargaro, Andrea Iannone, Cal Crutchlow, Jorge Lorenzo, Mika Kallio with a KTM engine upgrade, Andrea Dovizioso, Valentino Rossi, Johann Zarco and Danilo Petrucci.

Dani Pedrosa is then 17th and Maverick Vinales 12th, but the Yamaha rider continued his effort without stopping and took 5th position. All the drivers in the top 5 are then in medium–medium except Alex Espargaro who leaves with a tender in the back at mid-session.

This is the moment when Cal Crutchlow, 4th, made his effort and returned to the top of the ranking in 1'37.973.

Franco Morbidelli goes from 17th to 12th position while his Team manager, Michel Bartholemy, hopes to announce at Le Mans whether the Marc VDS team will ride Yamaha or Suzuki next year.

Esteve Rabat also creates a surprise by positioning itself 3rd and temporarily integrating Q2, excluding it for the moment Andrea Dovizioso !

A few seconds later, the Avintia driver fell without gravity at turn number 5 and ran back into his box.

Before the end of the 2nd run, Jorge Lorenzo takes 4th position, thus confirming the hopes mentioned yesterday.

The hierarchy of the session is then composed of Cal Crutchlow, Marc Marquez, Aleix Espargaro, Esteve Rabat, Jorge Lorenzo, Andrea Iannone, Maverick Vinales, Mika Kallio, Andrea Iannone et Andrea Dovizioso. Valentino Rossi is 11th, Johann zarco 12e.

4 minutes later, alex rins confirms that we are in a somewhat crazy session and climbs into 2nd position, 1/2 second behind Cal Crutchlow.

Valentino Rossi (medium/medium) then 15th, then moves into second position, 8 minutes from the checkered flag.

Marc Márquez 4th (medium/soft) attacks 2 minutes later and clocks a 1'37.818 (new track record), just before Dani Pedrosa makes his return to the top 3.

Number 93 does not stop there and achieves 1'37.702 on the next pass.

3 minutes from the end of the session, Johann zarco took 3rd position before being dethroned by Andrea Iannone when Jorge Lorenzo goes up about ten places.

When the flag drops, there are 17 drivers in the same second...

Finally, Marc Marquez, Cal Crutchlow, Andrea Iannone, Johann Zarco, Jorge Lorenzo, Jack Miller, Valentino Rossi, Dani Pedrosa, Danilo Petrucci et alex rins are qualified for Q2.

Andrea Dovizioso et Maverick Vinales They will have to go through Q1!

Photo credit: MotoGP.com