Marc Marquez heads into this afternoon’s qualifying for the Czech Grand Prix as the man to beat, after the Honda rider pipped team-mate Dani Pedrosa to top spot in third practice.
The session was brought to an early pause to allow the air fences at Turn 10 to be repaired after Aspar’s Alvaro Bautista and Honda men Marquez and Cal Crutchlow came off in quick succession at the corner.
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When the session got back underway, it was the sister factory RC213V of Pedrosa who shot to the top of the combined times with a 1m55.541s.
Already seven tenths clear of the field, Pedrosa was pushing on the next lap to cement his position when he crashed at Turn 8. Unhurt, he was quickly able to rejoin the action.
Pedrosa held onto top spot for much of the session, though his advantage was gradually cut as the final minutes counted down.
The Spaniard was finally deposed with 30 seconds on the clock by Marquez, who popped in a 1m55.370s to go 0.171s clear, while Yamaha’s Valentino Rossi jumped up to third in the closing stages.
Maverick Vinales, who suffered a mystifying loss of form on Friday, seemingly rectified his issues this morning and was fourth fastest ahead of Andrea Dovizioso.
Crutchlow returned to circuit after his early crash to go sixth quickest on the LCR Honda, while Aleix Espargaro guided his heavily upgraded Aprilia to seventh on the timesheets.
Tech3’s Johann Zarco brushed off a tumble at Turn 3 in the opening quarter of third practice to finish eighth, while Jorge Lorenzo gave Ducati’s radical new aerodynamic fairing another run in ninth.
Loris Baz clung onto the final Q2 spot in 10th despite a late fall, the Avintia Ducati rider just 0.091s ahead of Jonas Folger, with Suzuki’s Andrea Iannone a further 0.012s adrift in 12th.
Baz’s team-mate Hector Barbera headed KTM’s Pol Espargaro, while Bautista and Danilo Petrucci were surprise scalps in 15th and 16th respectively.
Scott Redding was the other crasher in that session, the Briton losing the front-end of his GP16 at Turn 5 with six minutes on the clock. He ended the session 19th as a result and will join his Pramac team-mate in Q1.
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