Le Mans MotoGP: Jorge Lorenzo pips Marc Marquez in FP3

Honda rider Marquez had set the pace for the majority of the session, quickly surpassing the early marks set by the Yamahas of Lorenzo and Valentino Rossi.

The Spaniard then beat his own best time from Friday's running just after the halfway stage, and as the session continued he set several laps that were closer than anyone else could get to his best.

With three minutes remaining Lorenzo - who was only just ahead of the cut-off to automatically get through to Q2 later today - returned to the pits to fit a new soft tyre.

That gave him enough time to set one flying lap, with which he beat Marquez's best by 0.024s.

Behind the two MotoGP world champions, Pol Espargaro was best of the rest in third, while Alvaro Bautista put in a late lap to take fourth.

Rossi was on the fringe of the battle at the front throughout the session without ever lighting up the timing screens, and he ended up fifth ahead of Stefan Bradl and Dani Pedrosa.

Pedrosa briefly fell below the Q2 cut-off just before the session reached the half-hour mark, but he responded to that by returning to the track and setting a time that was good enough for second at that moment.

While Andrea Dovizioso got one factory Ducati into the top 10 and therefore through to Q2, his team-mate Cal Crutchlow had to settle for 13th fastest, meaning he will have to earn his way into the pole-deciding session during Q1.

Pos  Rider             Team/Bike             Time       Gap
 1.  Jorge Lorenzo     Yamaha                1m33.021s
 2.  Marc Marquez      Honda                 1m33.045s  +0.024s
 3.  Pol Espargaro     Tech 3 Yamaha         1m33.241s  +0.220s
 4.  Alvaro Bautista   Gresini Honda         1m33.250s  +0.229s
 5.  Valentino Rossi   Yamaha                1m33.331s  +0.310s
 6.  Stefan Bradl      LCR Honda             1m33.368s  +0.347s
 7.  Dani Pedrosa      Honda                 1m33.449s  +0.428s
 8.  Bradley Smith     Tech 3 Yamaha         1m33.510s  +0.489s
 9.  Andrea Dovizioso  Ducati                1m33.716s  +0.695s
10.  Andrea Iannone    Pramac Ducati         1m33.784s  +0.763s
11.  Aleix Espargaro   Forward Yamaha        1m33.851s  +0.830s
12.  Yonny Hernandez   Pramac Ducati         1m34.209s  +1.188s
13.  Cal Crutchlow     Ducati                1m34.333s  +1.312s
14.  Hiroshi Aoyama    Aspar Honda           1m34.382s  +1.361s
15.  Colin Edwards     Forward Yamaha        1m34.604s  +1.583s
16.  Nicky Hayden      Aspar Honda           1m34.626s  +1.605s
17.  Karel Abraham     Cardion Honda         1m35.727s  +2.706s
18.  Hector Barbera    Avintia FTR-Kawasaki  1m36.014s  +2.993s
19.  Scott Redding     Gresini Honda         1m36.127s  +3.106s
20.  Mike di Meglio    Avintia FTR-Kawasaki  1m36.462s  +3.441s
21.  Broc Parkes       PBM Aprilia           1m36.513s  +3.492s
22.  Michael Laverty   PBM Aprilia           1m37.117s  +4.096s