Repsol Honda's Dani Pedrosa during Friday's practice session at Circuit of The Americas (Image by Keith Rizzo, COTA)
// Free Practice Three
The MotoGP grid returned to the track for a third practice session this morning with Repsol Honda’s Dani Pedrosa shaving over a second from his previous practice time (2'05.585) and setting the pace for the session (2'04.408). Following behind were Marquez (2'04.795), Lorenzo (2'05.295) and Crutchlow. (2'05.630) The riders will continue their preparations for the qualifying session later this afternoon.
Pedrosa’s teammate Marc Marquez took second position in the practice session following a crash on the entrance to Turn 19 early in the session. The MotoGP rookie for the Repsol Honda team lost the rear end of his bike while beginning the lead into to the penultimate corner, causing him to tumble over the top of his bike, land on his side and slide across the run-off into the gravel. Marquez recovered quickly and returned to the track, holding the top time for the session until the final few minutes when he was eclipsed by his teammate.
Marquez’s spill echoes what many Formula 1 drivers experienced in November: the off-camber geometry of Turn 19 creates difficulty in setting up for the turn-in. Like the first practice sessions of F1 at COTA, many riders in MotoGP are struggling to maintain balance after exiting the wide sweeping right turns of 16-18 and properly setup Turn 19, causing many to overshoot and be forced to sacrifice grip or their line into Turn 20. A deceptively simple turn, this will cause problems for many riders, so keep an eye on how they continue to develop their skills in the last sector of the track; it could make the difference in tomorrow’s race.
// Official Standings
Here’s the full line-up following FP3 this morning (Lukas Pesek and Mike Barnes fell outside of 107%):
- Dani Pedrosa
- Marc Marquez
- Jorge Lorenzo
- Cal Crutchlow
- Stefan Bradl
- Andrea Dovizioso
- Valentino Rossi
- Alvaro Bautista
- Nicky Hayden
- Ben Spies
- Aleix Espargaro
- Bradley Smith
- Andrea Iannone
- Randy de Puniet
- Yonny Hernandez
- Karel Abraham
- Danilo Petrucci
- Hector Barbera
- Claudio Corti
- Hiroshi Aoyama
- Colin Edwards
- Michael Laverty
- Bryan Staring
- Blake Young