Ecstar Suzuki’s Maverick Vinales has set the early pace at MotoGP’s Catalunya round, topping the free practice timesheets by a little under a tenth of a second from reigning champion Jorge Lorenzo, the man he replaces at Movistar Yamaha next year while Valentino Rossi was third.
Lorenzo was fast out of the blocks at the Montmelo track with a 1’42.143 on his fifth lap and he remained there for the session until Vinales final exit with seven minutes remaining which saw the young Spaniard put in a 1’41.065 to take top spot while Rossi also put in a late lap of 1’42.536.
But it was disaster again for Honda as although Marc Marquez set a 1’42.965 and then reduced it to a 142.886 he was still eight-tenths off the pace as the quickest of the RC213V with Britain’s Cal Crutchow a further tenth in arrears. Dani Pedrosa, though, is in 14th and 1.2s off the pace while both the Estrella Galicia bikes crashed - both riders unhurt.
Monster Yamaha’s Pol Espargaro took fourth place with his last fast lap of 1’42.709 which was just enough to demote Yonny Hernandez to fifth, The Columbian was the fastest Ducati rider on a 1’42.767, one ahead of the departing works Desmosedici of Andrea Iannone.
Hector Barbera recovered from a cold-tyre crash early doors for eighth while Aleix Espargaro completed the top ten behind Crutchlow. Alvaro Bautista busted a lap late on to push Scott Redding out of 11th place while Andrea Dovizioso took 13th in front of Pedrosa.
Eugene Laverty was 15th, one ahead of Bradley Smith who is again struggling in the opening session. Danilo Petrucci crashed unhurt and could only muster a 1’43.783 for 17th place.
