LCR Honda’s Cal Crutchlow finished a rain-hit third free practice top of the pile, with the turn in the weather dropping a handful of big names into the first qualifying session.
The British rider has complained of his RC213V being a major handful to ride at Termas de Rio Hondo, with grip proving elusive. Nonetheless, Crutchlow was able to hop up the order to top FP3 with a 1m39.772s.
However, this lap was only good enough to put him second on the combined times, with second-place man in FP3 Maverick Vinales heading into qualifying still as the man to beat with his time from FP2.
Spots of rain began to appear with 15 minutes left on the clock, and they gradually worsened, which stopped any improvements in lap time taking place.
Dani Pedrosa was third fastest in FP3, but could only improve to 11th on the timesheets and will participate in one of the most competitive QP1 sessions for a long time. After difficult a difficult day yesterday for various reasons, Pedrosa will be joined by Valentino Rossi and both factory Ducatis.
Pramac Racing’s Scott Redding missed out on a place in the top 10 by just a few hundredths of a second in 12th, finishing FP3 fourth quickest. Marc Marquez completed the top five, though remains third overall.
Loris Baz was impressive on Friday on the Avintia GP15 in sixth, and proved his pace was no fluke this morning by repeating the performance. Crutchlow’s improvement saw the Frenchman drop a place to seventh.
Marc VDS Honda’s Jack Miller was seventh in FP3, but he failed to improve on his FP2 best and stayed 16th on the combined times. Andrea Dovizioso, Andrea Iannone and Aleix Espargaro completed the top 10 in third practice, the latter two bagging themselves a place in QP2.
MotoGP qualifying gets underway at 14:15 local time, with the 30-minute FP4 preceding it at 13:30.
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