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Valencia MotoGP: Marc Marquez sets record practice three pace

Marc Marquez remained the man to beat in Saturday morning practice for the MotoGP title showdown at Valencia

The championship leader registered the fastest ever lap at Valencia with a 1m30.803s towards the end of the session - 0.113 seconds quicker than title rival Jorge Lorenzo.

Marquez remained under the radar for most of the session while putting in a few long runs in an attempt to acclimatise to the softer rear tyres in the relatively cool conditions.

He produced his stunning lap with less than three minutes of the session remaining, demoting Honda team-mate Dani Pedrosa, who had topped the timesheets for the majority of the morning, in the process.

Toby Moody previews the Lorenzo vs. Marquez showdown

Title contender Lorenzo made steady improvements and looked poised to match Marquez's time, but was unable to maintain the pace through all four sectors of the lap.

Lorenzo's Yamaha team-mate Valentino Rossi emerged third quickest, ahead of Pedrosa and Cal Crutchlow. The latter was suffering from a temperamental brake lever issue mid-session.

Alvaro Bautista and Stefan Bradl took turns in sixth place and the momentum finally swung in the Spaniard's favour, while the Ducatis of Nicky Hayden and Andrea Dovizioso ended up eighth and ninth respectively.

The top 10 was rounded out by Tech 3's Bradley Smith, while Aleix Espargaro took fastest CRT honours in 11th.

Pos  Rider             Team/Bike             Time       Gap     Laps 
 1.  Marc Marquez      Honda                 1m30.803s           22     
 2.  Jorge Lorenzo     Yamaha                1m30.916s  +0.113s  20     
 3.  Valentino Rossi   Yamaha                1m31.033s  +0.230s  23     
 4.  Dani Pedrosa      Honda                 1m31.309s  +0.506s  20     
 5.  Cal Crutchlow     Tech 3 Yamaha         1m31.817s  +1.014s  20     
 6.  Alvaro Bautista   Gresini Honda         1m31.854s  +1.051s  21     
 7.  Stefan Bradl      LCR Honda             1m31.891s  +1.088s  21     
 8.  Nicky Hayden      Ducati                1m32.008s  +1.205s  22     
 9.  Andrea Dovizioso  Ducati                1m32.186s  +1.383s  18     
10.  Bradley Smith     Tech 3 Yamaha         1m32.326s  +1.523s  20     
11.  Aleix Espargaro   Aspar Aprilia         1m32.638s  +1.835s  18     
12.  Andrea Iannone    Pramac Ducati         1m32.755s  +1.952s  20     
13.  Danilo Petrucci   Ioda-Suter-BMW        1m32.877s  +2.074s  22     
14.  Hector Barbera    Avintia FTR-Kawasaki  1m33.030s  +2.227s  20     
15.  Michele Pirro     Pramac Ducati         1m33.102s  +2.299s  19     
16.  Claudio Corti     Forward FTR-Kawasaki  1m33.438s  +2.635s  18     
17.  Randy de Puniet   Aspar Aprilia         1m33.457s  +2.654s  20     
18.  Colin Edwards     Forward FTR-Kawasaki  1m33.517s  +2.714s  22     
19.  Yonny Hernandez   Pramac Ducati         1m33.630s  +2.827s  18     
20.  Hiroshi Aoyama    Avintia FTR-Kawasaki  1m33.673s  +2.870s  17     
21.  Luca Scassa       Cardion Aprilia       1m34.532s  +3.729s  18     
22.  Michael Laverty   PBM-Aprilia           1m34.737s  +3.934s  20     
23.  Lukas Pesek       Ioda-Suter-BMW        1m35.259s  +4.456s  18     
24.  Bryan Staring     Gresini FTR-Honda     1m35.455s  +4.652s  21     
25.  Martin Bauer      Remus-Suter-BMW       1m36.176s  +5.373s  21     
26.  Damian Cudlin     PBM-Aprilia           1m36.183s  +5.380s  20

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