Aragon MotoGP: Valentino Rossi sets pace in third practice

Overnight rain created damp track conditions that led to a largely uneventful session as riders were reluctant to explore the Aragon circuit.

It was left to newcomer Luca Scassa and Claudio Corti to provide any entertainment in the first 30 minutes as the pair made good use of the session and took turns at the top of the timesheets.

Bradley Smith was the first to join the duo and posted the first meaningful lap time with a 1m55.770s, which acted as a catalyst for the other riders to join in and led to a brief flurry of activity towards the end.

Half of the field headed out onto the track in the final five minutes and Rossi went fastest of all with his 1m50.464s, ahead of Alvaro Bautista and Nicky Hayden.

Aleix Espargaro was 2.3s adrift of the ultimate pace, while erstwhile leader Smith dropped to fifth, ahead of Hiroshi Aoyama and Andrea Iannone.

Those not posting lap times in the session included current championship leader Marc Marquez and Honda team-mate Dani Pedrosa, as well as title rival Jorge Lorenzo and Tech 3's Cal Crutchlow.

Pos Rider             Bike                    Time       Gap     Laps
 1. Valentino Rossi   Yamaha                  1m50.464s	          6
 2. Alvaro Bautista   Gresini Honda           1m51.003s  +0.539s  8
 3. Nicky Hayden      Ducati                  1m51.545s  +1.081s  6
 4. Aleix Espargaro   Aspar Aprilia           1m52.778s  +2.314s  6
 5. Bradley Smith     Tech 3 Yamaha           1m52.804s  +2.340s  11
 6. Hiroshi Aoyama    Avintia FTR-Kawasaki    1m53.206s  +2.742s  11
 7. Andrea Iannone    Pramac Ducati           1m53.505s  +3.041s  7
 8. Yonny Hernandez   Pramac Ducati           1m53.888s  +3.424s  6
 9. Danilo Petrucci   Ioda-Suter-BMW          1m53.946s  +3.482s  6
10. Luca Scassa       Cardion Aprilia         1m54.493s  +4.029s  14
11. Claudio Corti     Forward FTR-Kawasaki    1m55.101s  +4.637s  11
12. Bryan Staring     Gresini FTR-Honda       1m55.432s  +4.968s  8
13. Randy de Puniet   Aspar Aprilia           1m56.027s  +5.563s  6
14. Michael Laverty   PBM-Aprilia             1m56.138s  +5.674s  6
15. Hector Barbera    Avintia FTR-Kawasaki    1m57.290s  +6.826s  3
16. Colin Edwards     Forward FTR-Kawasaki    1m57.573s  +7.109s  4
17. Lukas Pesek       Ioda-Suter-BMW          1m59.232s  +8.768s  4
18. Andrea Dovizioso  Ducati                  2m01.521s  +11.057s 3
19. Stefan Bradl      LCR Honda
20. Dani Pedrosa      Honda
21. Cal Crutchlow     Tech 3 Yamaha
22. Damian Cudlin     PBM-Aprilia
23. Marc Marquez      Honda
24. Jorge Lorenzo     Yamaha