Reigning MotoGP World Champion Marc Marquez mirrored his last-lap dash from this morning’s opening free practice session and claimed the quickest time of the day, putting in a 1’31.454 on his penultimate lap at Valencia at the end of an eight-lap final run.
Marquez, using the medium rear tyre, edged out Ducati’s Andrea Dovizioso who had used his soft-tyre option to set the fastest lap on a 1’31.558, which pushed Forward Yamaha’s Aleix Espargaro, also on the Open soft tyre, into second before Marquez demoted him still further.
Movistar Yamaha’s Jorge Lorenzo, on the medium rear, ended in fourth place and only a tenth of a second covers the top four with Britain’s Cal Crutchlow put his soft rear to good use for fifth place on a 1’31.731 but neither Marquez nor Lorenzo were quicker than their times from this morning.
Dani Pedrosa, on the second Repsol Honda, was sixth, just ahead of Stefan Bradl with Pol Espargaro in eighth. Bradley Smith placed ninth, one ahead of Valentino Rossi on what has, in the past, been a bit of a bogey track for the nine-time world champion and he is six-tenths off the pace.
Hector Barbera led a trio of Ducatis in 11th place with Scott Redding in 17th, one behind Karel Abraham while Nicky Hayden was down in 20th, one ahead of Hiro Aoyama on the 2015 Production Honda.
Suzuki’s Randy De Puniet set the 18th fastest time of 1’32.799 then ran on into the gravel with what looked like a blown motor on lap 18, just a couple of corners after he finished his final lap. He was just over 1.3s off the pace on the new GSX-RR.
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