Photo: motogp.com
As temperatures rise on the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, action also gets more intense ahead of the Gran Premi Monster Energy de Catalunya, the 7th round of the current championship. After Marc Marquez improved once more his time in Free Practice 3 and led the outing, it was LCR Honda’s Stefan Bradl which posted the best time in the very last lap of the session, breaking the existing fastest lap record.
The German was clocked with 1’41.357, 0.194 seconds faster than the defending champion and with a 0.364 lead over Bradley Smith. Dani Pedrosa and Jorge Lorenzo have completed the top 5, followed by Rossi, Aleix Espargaro, with a most surprising presence of Pramac Ducati’s Yonny Hernandez in the 8th position, and Andrea Dovizioso and Pol Espargaro for the first 10. And to make things even fuzzier, you should also know that Hernandez is riding the GP13 machine, THAT impossible-to-ride Ducati from the last year’s generation. Honestly, we sort of understand Ducati less and less…, but seeing its bikes putting up a good fight is always great.
The FP4 kicks off one hour later, but its timing does not count towards Qualifying 1 and 2. The 30-minute-long Free Practice 4 is the final stage for tweaking the bikes and finding the best setup for the Q’s and the race. The combined FP times have determined the 10 Qualifying 2 riders who will battle for the positions on the first 4 rows of the grid. In order, we have: Bradl, Marquez, Aleix Espargaro, Smith, Pedrosa, Lorenzo, Rossi, Hernandez, Dovizioso and Pol Espargaro.
We can expect that Qualifying 1 brings a fierce battle between Alvaro Bautista, Cal Crutchlow and Andrea Iannone, with only two remaining open slots for Q2 and a chance for a better position on the start grid.
Now, it looks like this afternoon may be the last we see of the dry track in Barcelona, as rain and storms are announced for the area starting from tonight and lasting the whole Sunday. Rainstorms are expected over Barcelona, with 85% probability of precipitation until noon, and a full-on 100% in the second half of the day. So forget about tire management, softer tires and all, and don’t leave a flag-to-flag race out of the equation.
The FP4 kicks off one hour later, but its timing does not count towards Qualifying 1 and 2. The 30-minute-long Free Practice 4 is the final stage for tweaking the bikes and finding the best setup for the Q’s and the race. The combined FP times have determined the 10 Qualifying 2 riders who will battle for the positions on the first 4 rows of the grid. In order, we have: Bradl, Marquez, Aleix Espargaro, Smith, Pedrosa, Lorenzo, Rossi, Hernandez, Dovizioso and Pol Espargaro.
We can expect that Qualifying 1 brings a fierce battle between Alvaro Bautista, Cal Crutchlow and Andrea Iannone, with only two remaining open slots for Q2 and a chance for a better position on the start grid.
Now, it looks like this afternoon may be the last we see of the dry track in Barcelona, as rain and storms are announced for the area starting from tonight and lasting the whole Sunday. Rainstorms are expected over Barcelona, with 85% probability of precipitation until noon, and a full-on 100% in the second half of the day. So forget about tire management, softer tires and all, and don’t leave a flag-to-flag race out of the equation.
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