Reigning MotoGP World Champion Marc Marquez just edged Cal Crutchlow off the top of the third MotoGP free practice timesheet at Austin this afternoon with a final lap of 2’03.302.
Crutchlow dragged himself out of the qualifying one danger zone with his 13th lap of the session, a 2’03.490, which put him at the top of tree but Marquez’ had other ideas and just pipped the British man by 0.188s.
Both Valentino Rossi and Jorge Lorenzo were also in danger of having to go through qualifying one this afternoon but put in identical 2’03.647s laps to automatically make it through the sit behind the two Hondas.
Britain’s Bradley Smith suffered right at the end as his last run ended in a 2’03.666 - good enough for second with only a handful of minutes left - but he was bounced back to fifth place, just ahead of team-mate Pol Espargaro and his brother Aleix, who used his soft tyre concession to occupy seventh on the Suzuki.
Andrea Dovizioso, also using the soft tyre, could only muster eighth place while Scott Redding put his works-spec RC213V in ninth place. Danilo Petrucci was the final man through to qualifying two by right despite a crash.
His 2’04.030 on the Pramac Ducati put the works Desmosedici of Andrea Iannone into qualifying one along with Maverick Vinales and Stefan Bradl. Vinales was as high as fifth place on the second Suzuki but just couldn’t make as much of the soft tyre as his team-mate.
Eugene Laverty ended his session in 22nd, one ahead of team-mate Nicky Hayden and one behind Jack Miller on the Open LCR Honda.
