Rossi leaves it late to top practice 3

Valentino Rossi

Valentino Rossi (Movistar Yamaha MotoGP) left it late to storm to the top of the timesheets in FP3 at the Monster Energy Grand Prix Ceske republiky with a 1:55.175, beating second fastest Danilo Petrucci (Alma Pramac Racing) by 0.086 and third place Jorge Lorenzo (Ducati Team) by 0.151 – but teammate Maverick Vinales misses out on an automatic Q2 place by 0.055 seconds in P11.

Safely into Q2 though was Championship leader Marc Marquez (Repsol Honda Team) after the Spaniard finished fourth quickest, his 1:55.458 was 0.283 off Rossi’s time, with Andrea Iannone (Team Ecstar Suzuki) 0.041 behind the number 93 in fifth – a solid session for the Italian who was outside the top ten after Friday’s Free Practice.

Friday’s leader Dani Pedrosa (Repsol Honda Team) briefly dropped outside the all-important top ten, but in the end the Spaniard had no trouble in FP3, finishing P6. Despite a late crash at Turn 3, Cal Crutchlow (LCR Honda Castrol) ended the session P7, with FP1 leader Johann Zarco (Monster Yamaha Tech 3) just 0.011 behind the Brit in eighth.

Practice 3 Times

Pos.	Num.	Rider	Nat	Team	Bike	Time	Behind	Gap.
1	46	Valentino ROSSI	ITA	Movistar Yamaha MotoGP	Yamaha	1'55.175	0.000s	0.000s
2	9	Danilo PETRUCCI	ITA	Alma Pramac Racing	Ducati	1'55.261	0.086	0.086
3	99	Jorge LORENZO	SPA	Ducati Team	Ducati	1'55.326	0.151	0.065
4	93	Marc MARQUEZ	SPA	Repsol Honda Team	Honda	1'55.458	0.283	0.132
5	29	Andrea IANNONE	ITA	Team SUZUKI ECSTAR	Suzuki	1'55.499	0.324	0.041
6	26	Dani PEDROSA	SPA	Repsol Honda Team	Honda	1'55.517	0.342	0.018
7	35	Cal CRUTCHLOW	GBR	LCR Honda CASTROL	Honda	1'55.617	0.442	0.100
8	5	Johann ZARCO	FRA	Monster Yamaha Tech 3	Yamaha	1'55.628	0.453	0.011
9	53	Tito RABAT	SPA	Reale Avintia Racing	Ducati	1'55.663	0.488	0.035
10	4	Andrea DOVIZIOSO	ITA	Ducati Team	Ducati	1'55.721	0.546	0.058
11	25	Maverick VIÃ'ALES	SPA	Movistar Yamaha MotoGP	Yamaha	1'55.776	0.601	0.055
12	41	Aleix ESPARGARO	SPA	Aprilia Racing Team Gresini	Aprilia	1'55.810	0.635	0.034
13	43	Jack MILLER	AUS	Alma Pramac Racing	Ducati	1'55.841	0.666	0.031
14	19	Alvaro BAUTISTA	SPA	Angel Nieto Team	Ducati	1'55.916	0.741	0.075
15	21	Franco MORBIDELLI	ITA	EG 0,0 Marc VDS	Honda	1'55.933	0.758	0.017
16	55	Hafizh SYAHRIN	MAL	Monster Yamaha Tech 3	Yamaha	1'56.013	0.838	0.080
17	42	Alex RINS	SPA	Team SUZUKI ECSTAR	Suzuki	1'56.109	0.934	0.096
18	44	Pol ESPARGARO	SPA	Red Bull KTM	KTM	1'56.280	1.105	0.171
19	38	Bradley SMITH	GBR	Red Bull KTM	KTM	1'56.486	1.311	0.206
20	6	Stefan BRADL	GER	HRC Honda Team	Honda	1'56.686	1.511	0.200
21	45	Scott REDDING	GBR	Aprilia Racing Team Gresini	Aprilia	1'56.902	1.727	0.216
22	17	Karel ABRAHAM	CZE	Angel Nieto Team	Ducati	1'56.964	1.789	0.062
23	30	Takaaki NAKAGAMI	JPN	LCR Honda IDEMITSU	Honda	1'57.008	1.833	0.044
24	50	Sylvain GUINTOLI	FRA	Team SUZUKI ECSTAR	Suzuki	1'57.204	2.029	0.196
25	12	Thomas LUTHI	SWI	EG 0,0 Marc VDS	Honda	1'57.322	2.147	0.118
26	10	Xavier SIMEON	BEL	Reale Avintia Racing	Ducati	1'57.560	2.385	0.238