Valencia MotoGP testing: Marc Marquez leads final day for Honda
Marc Marquez set the pace on the third and final day of MotoGP's post-season test at Valencia on Wednesday
The double champion was one of the first to break the three-hour silence at midday after the riders were reluctant to take to the damp track following Tuesday's downpour, and his early benchmark of 1m31.667s remained unbeaten until mid-afternoon.
Jorge Lorenzo was the first to beat that time, before Marquez's Honda team-mate Dani Pedrosa went quicker still and stayed atop the timesheets until the final 20 minutes of the session when Marquez set the fastest time of the week.
His 1m30.973s on the 2014-spec Honda RC213V was a miniscule 0.002 seconds quicker than what Lorenzo achieved on Monday and he finished the day 0.146s ahead of Pedrosa, who failed to improve as the final official test session of 2014 drew to a conclusion.
Lorenzo was 0.045s behind his fellow countryman in third having put next year's Yamaha M1 through its paces, while Tech 3's Pol Espargaro was fourth and ahead of 2014 runner-up Valentino Rossi.
Bradley Smith claimed sixth, while Danilo Petrucci - who was fastest in the wet on Tuesday - came within 0.692s of the ultimate pace after what has been a positive trio of days on the Pramac Ducati GP14.
LCR Honda new boy Cal Crutchlow set his best time with five minutes of the session remaining to go eighth and was the meat in a Pramac sandwich as Yonny Hernandez was ninth.
Rounding off the top 10 and finishing exactly one second behind Marquez was Aleix Espargaro, who showed impressive pace on Suzuki's GSX-RR.
Avintia's Hector Barbera had the most productive day with 84 laps under his belt. He was 11th fastest and ahead of Ducati test rider Michele Pirro, who spent most of the day analysing a new swingarm on the Desmosedici GP14.2.
Elsewhere, Nicky Hayden rode his new Honda RC213V-RS to 13th, Scott Redding put the Marc VDS Honda in 14th and Forward Racing's Stefan Bradl, whose progress was halted in the afternoon after a spill, finished 15th.
Moto3 runner-up Jack Miller and Gresini returnee Marco Melandri propped up the order in 21st and 22nd respectively.
Pos Rider Team/Bike Time Gap Laps 1. Marc Marquez Honda 1m30.973s 68 2. Dani Pedrosa Honda 1m31.119s +0.146s 57 3. Jorge Lorenzo Yamaha 1m31.164s +0.191s 64 4. Pol Espargaro Tech 3 Yamaha 1m31.288s +0.315s 53 5. Valentino Rossi Yamaha 1m31.301s +0.328s 68 6. Bradley Smith Tech 3 Yamaha 1m31.365s +0.392s 53 7. Danilo Petrucci Pramac Ducati 1m31.665s +0.692s 66 8. Cal Crutchlow LCR Honda 1m31.774s +0.801s 53 9. Yonny Hernandez Pramac Ducati 1m31.914s +0.941s 52 10. Aleix Espargaro Suzuki 1m31.973s +1.000s 41 11. Hector Barbera Avintia Ducati 1m32.007s +1.034s 84 12. Michele Pirro Ducati 1m32.113s +1.140s 68 13. Nicky Hayden Aspar Honda 1m32.173s +1.200s 53 14. Scott Redding Marc VDS Honda 1m32.621s +1.648s 64 15. Stefan Bradl Forward Yamaha 1m32.784s +1.811s 38 16. Alvaro Bautista Gresini Aprilia 1m32.810s +1.837s 68 17. Mike di Meglio Avintia Ducati 1m30.922s +1.949s 70 18. Maverick Vinales Suzuki 1m33.216s +2.243s 60 19. Loris Baz Forward Yamaha 1m33.486s +2.513s 60 20. Eugene Laverty Aspar Honda 1m33.509s +2.536s 62 21. Jack Miller LCR Honda 1m33.746s +2.773s 61 22. Marco Melandri Gresini Aprilia 1m34.336s +3.363s 56
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