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MotoGP Jerez: Marquez leads as Dovi, Vinales miss Q2

Reigning MotoGP World Champion Marc Marquez set a new outright lap record at Jerez on his way to the top of the free practice three timesheets this morning while title rivals Andrea Dovizoso and Maverick Vinales failed to secure am automatic place in qualifying two.

Marquez set two consecutive laps under the existing record, putting in a 1’37.818 on his first lap of the weekend on the soft Michelin rear and then dropping the hammer for a 1’37.702 on his 19th lap of 22 in the session.

The Repsol Honda man deposed HRC stablemate Cal Crutchlow from the top of the timesheet after the Briton had been the first man under the 1’38s barrier with a 1’37.973 - but the LCR Honda man was the only rider not to switch to the soft rear, setting his time on lap ten of 19 on the medium rubber all round.

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Ecstar Suzuki’s Andrea Iannone rocketed into the top three with his first effort on the soft rear, setting a 1’37.989 after spending almost the whole 50 minutes working on race setup.

Monster Yamaha's Johann Zarco hopped into the top three late on with a medium/soft setup but Iannone's lap sent him back to fourth place while Jorge Lorenzo's new parts, which have given him more corner stability, enabled the Spaniard to take a soft/soft combination to fifth place.

Jack Miller, who is still suffering with a torn rotator cuff, took sixth place on the Pramac GP17 while Valentino Rossi kept his head above water in the cooler conditions and finished in seventh, six-tenths behind Marquez.

Dani Pedrosa ended his session in eighth with Danilo Petrucci nabbing ninth place late on. Alex Rins, on the second Ecstar GSX-RR, took the final automatic qualifying two place with a 1'38.468 which left Dovizoso in 11th.

The Italian has not been using the same aero package as Lorenzo and yesterday hadn't tried any of the new parts which seem to please his team-mate.

Maverick Vinales threw everything at his time-attack lap, even switching to a soft front, but it wasn't enough and he finished in 12th. A place in Q2 might not be a foregone conclusion either as Karel Abraham, down in 20th, is only half a second slower than the works Yamaha man.

Aleix Espargaro had been in the top three early doors and upped his game to a 1'38.550 but his gap of eight-tenths to the leader meant he finished in 13th, one ahead of Tito Rabat who went down in the first few laps. Pol Espargaro completed the top 15.

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