Dani Pedrosa pipped his Repsol Honda team mate in this morning’s final free practice session at the Estoril circuit, which today offered much more grip.
The Spaniard suffered an electronics issue on his first bike and had to park it against a fence earlier in the session, but in one of his last flying laps on his second machine and he posted a 1.
37.
326 taking the top of the timesheets leaving Casey Stoner who dominated the entire session adrift by a mere 0.
012s.
Jorge Lorenzo raised his head following his yesterday’s ’so-so’ 5th place and moved up the charts to take third and he was just 0.
364s from the top Honda rider.
Yamaha Tech3 duo Cal Crutchlow and Andrea Dovizioso followed up in 4th and 5th respectively, with the Briton falling slightly back while the Italian moved up the timesheets from his Friday’s 10th spot after debuting a new swingarm.
Alvaro Bautista with his 6th spot was the last rider to be within a second from Pedrosa.
Valentino Rossi was 7th and the fastest Ducati rider, but he was still more than 1.
1 seconds slower that the fastest lap.
Ben Spies seemed to suffer a set back with his 8th spot, but according to his team manager Maio Meregalli he did the entire session on hard tires hoarding the softer compounds for qualifying and the race.
Nicky Hayden was 9th and he just 0.
044s from his fellow American.
Stefan Bradl completed the top ten and the first CRT rider was the usual Randy De Puniet with his 12th spot followed by team mate Aleix Espargaro who finished ahead of satellite Ducati rider Karel Abraham.
MotoGP Estoril – FP3 results:01- Dani Pedrosa – Repsol Honda Team – Honda RC213V – 1’37.
32602- Casey Stoner – Repsol Honda Team – Honda RC213V – + 0.
01203- Jorge Lorenzo – Yamaha Factory Racing – Yamaha YZR M1 – + 0.
35404- Cal Crutchlow – Monster Yamaha Tech 3 – Yamaha YZR M1 – + 0.
76005- Andrea Dovizioso – Monster Yamaha Tech 3 – Yamaha YZR M1 – + 0.
94706- Alvaro Bautista – San Carlo Honda Gresini – Honda RC213V – + 1.
00607- Valentino Rossi – Ducati Team – Ducati Desmosedici GP12 – + 1.
11708- Ben Spies – Yamaha Factory Racing – Yamaha YZR M1 – + 1.
23209- Nicky Hayden – Ducati Team – Ducati Desmosedici GP12 – + 1.
27610- Stefan Bradl – LCR Honda MotoGP – Honda RC213V – + 1.
38811- Hector Barbera – Pramac Racing Team – Ducati Desmosedici GP12 – + 1.
53012- Randy De Puniet – Power Electronics Aspar – ART GP12 – + 2.
03513- Aleix Espargaro – Power Electronics Aspar – ART GP12 – + 2.
89914- Karel Abraham – Cardion AB Motoracing – Ducati Desmosedici GP12 – + 3.
04815- Yonny Hernandez – Avintia Blusens – FTR Kawasaki – + 3.
23516- Mattia Pasini – Speed Master Team – ART GP12 – + 3.
54917- Michele Pirro – San Carlo Honda Gresini – FTR Honda – + 4.
05318- Ivan Silva – Avintia Blusens – Inmotec MotoGP – + 4.
44619- Danilo Petrucci – CAME Iodaracing Project – Ioda TR003 – + 4.
67620- James Ellison – Paul Bird Motorsport – ART GP12 – + 4.
77721- Colin Edwards – NGM Mobile Forward Racing – Suter BMW – + 4.
819