Practice report

Austin MotoGP: Marquez edges out Iannone in third practice

Marc Marquez continued to set the pace in third practice for the GP of the Americas at Austin, but Andrea Iannone was able to keep the two-time MotoGP champion honest.

Once again, it was Marquez who was first to break through his own Friday pace when Saturday's action at the Circuit of the Americas commenced, the Honda man setting a best time of 2m03.885s that stood as the benchmark for the majority of the session.

That gave the Spaniard a margin of six tenths of a second over Iannone's Ducati, and Marquez was able to shave a few hundredths off his earlier effort with three minutes remaining with a 2m03.861s.

Shortly after, Iannone reduced Marquez's advantage to just 0.098s with a blistering lap of his own, but the gap between the duo was back up to 0.198s after the chequered flag as Marquez finally worked his way down to a 2m03.741s.

Some fourth tenths further back in third was Jorge Lorenzo aboard the best of the Yamahas, the Spaniard demoting compatriot Maverick Vinales (Suzuki) with a lap just 0.005s faster on his final lap of the session.

Cal Crutchlow had briefly put his LCR Honda third in the closing stages before the late improvements from Lorenzo and Vinales, having to settle for fifth, with Valentino Rossi completing the top half-dozen on the second factory Yamaha with a time 0.709s adrift of Marquez.

Dani Pedrosa (Repsol Honda) and an impressive Loris Baz (Avintia Ducati) were next up, ahead of the second factory Ducati of Andrea Dovizioso - who suffered a crash at Turn 11 on his way to the ninth best time, exactly a second off the pace.

The last man to seal his automatic Q2 slot was Pramac Ducati's Scott Redding at the chequered flag, pushing out Pol Espargaro (Tech 3 Yamaha).

The Spaniard will thus have to fight his way through Q1 along with brother Aleix Espargaro (Suzuki), Hector Barbera on the slower of the Avintia bikes and Bradley Smith - who struggled badly and could do no better than 19th on his Tech 3 Yamaha, some 2.2s off the pace.

Practice results:

Pos	Rider	Team	Bike	Time	Gap
1	Marc Marquez	Repsol Honda Team	Honda RC213V	2:03.741	2:03.741
2	Andrea Iannone	Ducati Team	Ducati Desmosedici GP16	2:03.937	+0.196
3	Jorge Lorenzo	Yamaha Factory Racing	Yamaha YZR-M1	2:04.331	+0.590
4	Maverick Viñales	Team Suzuki ECSTAR	Suzuki GSX-RR	2:04.336	+0.595
5	Cal Crutchlow	Team LCR	Honda RC213V	2:04.408	+0.667
6	Valentino Rossi	Yamaha Factory Racing	Yamaha YZR-M1	2:04.450	+0.709
7	Dani Pedrosa	Repsol Honda Team	Honda RC213V	2:04.524	+0.783
8	Loris Baz	Avintia Racing	Ducati Desmosedici GP14	2:04.576	+0.835
9	Andrea Dovizioso	Ducati Team	Ducati Desmosedici GP16	2:04.741	+1.000
10	Scott Redding	Octo Pramac Yakhnich	Ducati Desmosedici GP15	2:04.769	+1.028
11	Pol Espargaro	Tech 3	Yamaha YZR-M1	2:04.783	+1.042
12	Aleix Espargaro	Team Suzuki ECSTAR	Suzuki GSX-RR	2:05.061	+1.320
13	Hector Barbera	Avintia Racing	Ducati Desmosedici GP14	2:05.207	+1.466
14	Michele Pirro	Octo Pramac Yakhnich	Ducati Desmosedici GP15	2:05.288	+1.547
15	Yonny Hernandez	Aspar Racing Team	Ducati Desmosedici GP14	2:05.378	+1.637
16	Stefan Bradl	Aprilia Racing Team Gresini	Aprilia RS-GP	2:05.616	+1.875
17	Jack Miller	Estrella Galicia 0,0 Marc VDS	Honda RC213V	2:05.684	+1.943
18	Bradley Smith	Tech 3	Yamaha YZR-M1	2:05.962	+2.221
19	Eugene Laverty	Aspar Racing Team	Ducati Desmosedici GP14	2:06.179	+2.438
20	Tito Rabat	Estrella Galicia 0,0 Marc VDS	Honda RC213V	2:06.444	+2.703
21	Alvaro Bautista	Aprilia Racing Team Gresini	Aprilia RS-GP	2:06.488	+2.747