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MotoGP Rio Hondo: Marc Marquez fastest for Honda in FP3

Marc Marquez led his first session of the Argentina MotoGP weekend as he edged out Cal Crutchlow in Saturday morning practice at Termas de Rio Hondo

Marquez's late 1m38.602s for Honda was the first lap that beat Aleix Espargaro's Friday benchmark on the Suzuki.

LCR Honda rider Cruthlow got within 0.056 seconds of Marquez, making it the second time in a week that he had run the champion close in the crucial practice session following a similar performance at Austin last weekend.

Espargaro was only fifth fastest this time but his Friday lap kept him third on the combined sheets and comfortably among those going straight into Q2.

The Ducatis of Andrea Iannone and Andrea Dovizioso claimed third and fourth.

Yamaha men Jorge Lorenzo and Valentino Rossi looked at risk of having to go through Q1 for a spell, before pulling themselves up to sixth and seventh.

But their satellite counterparts Pol Espargaro and Bradley Smith will both have to go into the first qualifying segment as they failed to crack the combined top 10 for Tech 3.

Espargaro only narrowly missed out, pipped by 0.014s by his 2013 Moto2 title rival Scott Redding as the Briton secured a second straight Q2 presence with Marc VDS.

Both Suzukis will be in the pole shootout again, with Maverick Vinales ninth fastest behind Pramac Ducati's Danilo Petrucci.

Eugene Laverty put himself in line for a Q2 slot for a while, though the Aspar Honda rider eventually fell back to 12th between the Tech 3 pair.

While Marquez set the pace, his temporary factory Honda team-mate Hiroshi Aoyama continued to struggle on Dani Pedrosa's usual bike. The stand-in rider was only 21st fastest.

FREE PRACTICE TIMES:

Pos Rider Team Bike Time Gap
1 Marc Marquez Honda Honda 1m38.602s -
2 Cal Crutchlow LCR Honda 1m38.658s 0.056s
3 Andrea Iannone Ducati Ducati 1m38.791s 0.189s
4 Andrea Dovizioso Ducati Ducati 1m38.818s 0.216s
5 Aleix Espargaro Suzuki Suzuki 1m38.919s 0.317s
6 Jorge Lorenzo Yamaha Yamaha 1m38.952s 0.350s
7 Valentino Rossi Yamaha Yamaha 1m39.019s 0.417s
8 Danilo Petrucci Pramac Racing Ducati 1m39.197s 0.595s
9 Maverick Vinales Suzuki Suzuki 1m39.253s 0.651s
10 Scott Redding Marc VDS Honda 1m39.312s 0.710s
11 Pol Espargaro Tech 3 Yamaha 1m39.326s 0.724s
12 Eugene Laverty Aspar Honda 1m39.362s 0.760s
13 Bradley Smith Tech 3 Yamaha 1m39.471s 0.869s
14 Yonny Hernandez Pramac Racing Ducati 1m39.728s 1.126s
15 Nicky Hayden Aspar Honda 1m39.762s 1.160s
16 Hector Barbera Avintia Racing Ducati 1m39.794s 1.192s
17 Stefan Bradl Forward Racing Yamaha Forward 1m39.812s 1.210s
18 Alvaro Bautista Aprilia Gresini Aprilia 1m39.938s 1.336s
19 Jack Miller LCR Honda 1m39.999s 1.397s
20 Karel Abraham AB Motoracing Honda 1m40.135s 1.533s
21 Hiroshi Aoyama Honda Honda 1m40.188s 1.586s
22 Mike Di Meglio Avintia Racing Ducati 1m40.255s 1.653s
23 Marco Melandri Aprilia Gresini Aprilia 1m40.532s 1.930s
24 Loris Baz Forward Racing Yamaha Forward 1m40.805s 2.203s
25 Alex de Angelis IodaRacing Project ART/Aprilia 1m41.565s 2.963s


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