Motegi MotoGP: Marquez fastest as Lorenzo crashes hard
Honda's Marc Marquez set the fastest time in third practice for the Japanese MotoGP at Motegi, but reigning champion Jorge Lorenzo’s huge crash was the headline of the session.
Marc Marquez, Repsol Honda Team
Repsol Media
Yamaha's Lorenzo was just squeezing the throttle through Turn 2 at relatively slow speed, but his bike suddenly gripped up and high-sided massively – hurling him high into the air and slamming him down on his back in ugly fashion.
After a trip to the medical centre, Lorenzo was taken to hospital via helicopter for further tests.
Story of the session
Lorenzo had set the early pace on 1m45.151s, 0.053s up on Ducati’s Andrea Dovizioso. Marquez had a big moment under braking early on and was fourth fastest, but then jumped to P1 on 1m45.073s having latched on to the back of Hector Barbera, who is riding the injured Andrea Iannone’s works Ducati while still wearing his Avintia leathers.
Marquez lowered his P1 time to 1m44.987s, 0.164s ahead of Lorenzo. LCR Honda’s Cal Crutchlow improved to 1m45.026s to grab the second-fastest time, just 0.039s in arrears. Dovizioso also improved late on to grab third on 1m45.057s from Barbera's very tidy 1m45.120s.
Lorenzo ended the session fifth, but crashed heavily on his final run in the first sector, the Spaniard lying flat-out on the ground and clutching his left leg before getting to his feet.
He then stumbled over, and rolled on to a stretcher. After he regained his senses, he was back on his feet and talking to marshals but arrived at the medical centre clearly limping and also concerned about his left arm.
Aleix Espargaro was sixth for Suzuki, ahead of teammate Maverick Vinales.
Valentino Rossi was only eighth fastest, ahead of Tech 3’s Pol Espargaro and Pramac Ducati's Danilo Petrucci – who all go through automatically to Q2.
Pramac's Scott Redding just missed out on that by 0.01s, with Stefan Bradl the leading Aprilia rider.
Multiple crashes
Jack Miller fell from his Marc VDS Honda at Turn 7 after 5 minutes, and would crash again later in the session at Turn 9. Danilo Petrucci also went down on his Pramac Ducati.
Katsuyuki Nakasuga shunted his Yamaha at Turn 10, and Aprilia’s Alvaro Bautista crashed out at Turn 3.
Aspar’s Eugene Laverty sat out the session following his huge FP2 high-side.
Japanese GP FP3
Pos | Driver | Bike | Time | Gap |
---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Marc Marquez | Honda | 1'44.987 | |
2 | Cal Crutchlow | Honda | 1'45.026 | 0.039 |
3 | Andrea Dovizioso | Ducati | 1'45.057 | 0.070 |
4 | Hector Barbera | Ducati | 1'45.120 | 0.133 |
5 | Aleix Espargaro | Suzuki | 1'45.155 | 0.168 |
6 | Maverick Viñales | Suzuki | 1'45.284 | 0.297 |
7 | Valentino Rossi | Yamaha | 1'45.417 | 0.430 |
8 | Pol Espargaro | Yamaha | 1'45.680 | 0.693 |
9 | Jorge Lorenzo | Yamaha | 1'45.794 | 0.807 |
10 | Danilo Petrucci | Ducati | 1'45.844 | 0.857 |
11 | Scott Redding | Ducati | 1'45.854 | 0.867 |
12 | Stefan Bradl | Aprilia | 1'46.012 | 1.025 |
13 | Yonny Hernandez | Ducati | 1'46.236 | 1.249 |
14 | Katsuyuki Nakasuga | Yamaha | 1'46.807 | 1.820 |
15 | Alvaro Bautista | Aprilia | 1'46.962 | 1.975 |
16 | Tito Rabat | Honda | 1'47.327 | 2.340 |
17 | Hiroshi Aoyama | Honda | 1'47.522 | 2.535 |
18 | Bradley Smith | Yamaha | 1'47.556 | 2.569 |
19 | Jack Miller | Honda | 1'48.184 | 3.197 |
20 | Loris Baz | Ducati | 1'48.283 | 3.296 |
21 | Mike Jones | Ducati | 1'49.071 | 4.084 |
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