Marquez moves in front as Q2 runners decided

Le Mans 2013 - MotoGP - FP3 - Full

Saturday, 18 May 2013

Marc Marquez posted the quickest lap time of the Le Mans weekend so far as third practice was staged on Saturday morning. The championship leader moved in front of Jorge Lorenzo and Friday pace-setter Dani Pedrosa as the first ten Q2 participants were revealed. Several riders crashed at Turn 3.

Becoming the only rider to beat Pedrosa’s quickest time of Friday, Marquez registered 1’33.600 which was half a second quicker than Yamaha Factory Racing’s Lorenzo, with Pedrosa a further 83 thousandths adrift with the second Repsol Honda Team Bike. Nicky Hayden was fourth quickest for Ducati Team from Monster Yamaha Tech 3’s Cal Crutchlow, who ran with a new aluminium duct in a bid to cool his brakes after suffering from overheating on Friday.

Second Ducati Team rider Andrea Dovizioso ended the morning in sixth place, with Bradley Smith seventh on the second Tech 3 bike but once again taking a trip across the gravel trap at Dunlop. PBM’s Yonny Hernandez, Avintia Blusens’ Hector Barbera and GO&FUN Honda Gresini’s Alvaro Bautista all crashed at the third corner; Bautista took the hardest impact as he was flicked off his Honda, although it was Barbera who sustained a fracture to the third finger of his left hand.

The top ten was completed by Yamaha Factory Racing’s Valentino Rossi and LCR Honda MotoGP’s Stefan Bradl, although the pair remain fourth and fifth overall from across the opening trio of practice periods. In Q1 Qualifying (featuring those who finished 11^th and downwards across practice), the quickest two finishers will be promoted to Q2 in order to fight for pole position in the top 12 shootout.

Next up is the fourth practice session, which has no bearing on the Q2 running order, before Qualifying starts at 2:10pm local time (GMT +2).

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