Honda’s Dani Pedrosa continued to top the timesheets at Jerez after finishing second practice fastest by just over half a second from Marc VDS’ Jack Miller.
Pedrosa made big strides in setting up his RC213V last time out at the Circuit of the Americas and also boasts a strong record at Jerez, the Spaniard winning three times and finishing nine of the last 10 races on the rostrum.
Comfortable both with circuit and bike, Pedrosa used this to maximum effect to go top of the pile early on. Fitting a soft rear tyre for a run at the end of the session, the Honda rider twisted the screw to post a 1m39.420s to go 0.544s clear of satellite Honda man Miller.
Cal Crutchlow made it three RC213Vs in the top three, after a late effort on his LCR machine 1m40.045s. Jorge Lorenzo took his Ducati to a massively encouraging fourth fastest, with Pramac’s Danilo Petrucci completing the top five on his GP17.
Yamaha’s Maverick Vinales ended the day sixth overall after an early off at Turn 9. He headed Aspar’s Alvaro Bautista and Aprilia’s Aleix Espargaro, who also crashed at Turn 9. KTM’s Pol Espargaro was a massively praiseworthy 10th fastest and just 1.1s off the pace on his RC16, which is now fitted with a new ‘big bang’ engine.
Scott Redding was just a few hundredths outside of the top 10 in 11th, with Valentino Rossi struggling for pace behind in 12th. Both Tech 3 riders also missed the top 10 at the end of Friday’s action, Jonas Folger 13th and Johann Zarco 15th.
Marc Marquez slotted in between the Tech 3 duo, though the Honda rider did not fit a softer tyre at the end of the session, instead opting to focus on his race set-up.
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