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Valencia MotoGP: Marc Marquez leads practice three despite crash

Marc Marquez topped the third free practice session for MotoGP's Valencian Grand Prix, leading Pol Espargaro and Jorge Lorenzo

The Honda rider, who was fastest in both of Friday's practice sessions, spent basically all of the 45 minutes on top of the timesheet, cementing top spot, and a place in Q2, with a 1m30.950s - the first time of the weekend under 1m31s.

But it wasn't a perfect session for Marquez; shortly after setting his best time the world champion fell at Turn 5, and had to switch to his second bike.

Pol Espargaro did his best to hunt Marquez down in the last 10 minutes, but could only manage a best of 1m31.083s, 0.133 seconds shy of Marquez's time.

Lorenzo, meanwhile, spent most of the session in the middle of the top 10, before going second eight minutes from time.

He ultimately wound up third, despite improving to a 1m31.146s late in the session.

Andrea Iannone was best of the Ducatis with the fourth fastest time, ahead of Dani Pedrosa and Valentino Rossi.

It took a late improvement from Rossi to sneak into Q2, the Italian having sat outside the top 10 for all except the last five minutes of the session.

Aleix Espargaro was eighth fastest, while Cal Crutchlow and Bradley Smith rounded out the top 10.

Despite setting a time just 0.549s slower than Marquez, Stefan Bradl missed out on a Q2 spot, the German finishing the session 11th.

Pos Rider Team Bike Time Gap
1 Marc Marquez Honda Honda 1m30.950s -
2 Pol Espargaro Tech 3 Yamaha 1m31.083s 0.133s
3 Jorge Lorenzo Yamaha Yamaha 1m31.146s 0.196s
4 Andrea Iannone Pramac Racing Ducati 1m31.148s 0.198s
5 Andrea Dovizioso Ducati Ducati 1m31.159s 0.209s
6 Dani Pedrosa Honda Honda 1m31.259s 0.309s
7 Valentino Rossi Yamaha Yamaha 1m31.318s 0.368s
8 Aleix Espargaro Forward Racing Forward Yamaha 1m31.389s 0.439s
9 Cal Crutchlow Ducati Ducati 1m31.408s 0.458s
10 Bradley Smith Tech 3 Yamaha 1m31.469s 0.519s
11 Stefan Bradl LCR Honda 1m31.499s 0.549s
12 Yonny Hernandez Pramac Racing Ducati 1m31.859s 0.909s
13 Alvaro Bautista Gresini Racing Honda 1m32.112s 1.162s
14 Michele Pirro Ducati Ducati 1m32.152s 1.202s
15 Alex de Angelis Forward Racing Forward Yamaha 1m32.169s 1.219s
16 Hector Barbera Avintia Racing Ducati 1m32.374s 1.424s
17 Hiroshi Aoyama Aspar Honda 1m32.513s 1.563s
18 Karel Abraham Cardion AB Motoracing Honda 1m32.585s 1.635s
19 Nicky Hayden Aspar Honda 1m32.591s 1.641s
20 Randy de Puniet Suzuki Suzuki 1m32.611s 1.661s
21 Scott Redding Gresini Racing Honda 1m32.626s 1.676s
22 Danilo Petrucci IodaRacing Project ART/Aprilia 1m33.375s 2.425s
23 Michael Laverty Paul Bird Motorsport PBM/Aprilia 1m33.795s 2.845s
24 Mike Di Meglio Avintia Racing Avintia/Kawasaki 1m34.236s 3.286s
25 Broc Parkes Paul Bird Motorsport PBM/Aprilia 1m34.304s 3.354s

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