Barcelona MotoGP test: Marc Marquez fastest with last-minute lap – MotoGP

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MotoGP championship leader Marc Marquez topped the post-Catalan Grand Prix test day at Barcelona.

Marquez overhauled Suzuki’s Andrea Iannone with four minutes left on the clock in the eight-hour session, posting a 1m38.916s – a lap time that would have been good enough for third on the grid for Sunday’s race.

Iannone had overhauled the session’s early leader – Avintia Ducati’s Tito Rabat – around the two-hour mark.

The status quo out front remained unchanged for a long time, before Marquez – who trialled a black-liveried prototype Honda RC213V during the day – took second from Rabat with just over half an hour left to run.

Marquez then sped up again, beating Iannone’s long-standing benchmark by 0.104 seconds, with Rabat remaining best of the rest in third, 0.446s off the pace.

With Ducati works riders Jorge Lorenzo and Andrea Dovizioso skipping the test, the firm provided “new things to try” for Pramac’s Danilo Petrucci – who will replace Lorenzo in the factory team next year.

Petrucci placed fourth, but his day had come to an early end when he crashed out at the high-speed Turn 9 right-hander.

“I’m fine, just a crash, was a low-side at Turn 9, but when [I] arrive on the gravel, there is always a little step between the grass and the gravel and I start to get round, round, round,” Petrucci explained.

“I start to feel very, very bad with my feet, but no fracture, so that’s important, even if my foot is getting bigger and bigger.

“Anyway, I’m so sorry, because it was my first test to try new things for Ducati factory, and the most important thing, I crashed with this.

“Fortunately, I’m OK, and the majority of the test we have done, so I’m happy because I was even quite fast.”

Tech3 Yamaha rider Johann Zarco had briefly taken the lead from Rabat early on, but was shuffled down the order, ending the day in fifth.

LCR Honda’s Cal Crutchlow was sixth, while Honda works rider Dani Pedrosa moved up to seventh late on.

Pedrosa’s improvement relegated Suzuki’s Alex Rins to eighth, 0.004s ahead of Yamaha’s Maverick Vinales and 0.006s ahead of Pramac Ducati’s Jack Miller.

Vinales and factory team-mate Valentino Rossi ventured out on track relatively late in the eight-hour test, and spent most of it outside the top 10, with the Italian eventually settling for 14th.

A new, larger-profile front tyre was made available to riders in the test by supplier Michelin, with Iannone saying: “I like it. Good job, Michelin.”

Test times

Pos Driver Team Car Time Gap Laps
1 Marc Marquez Honda Honda 1m38.916s 88
2 Andrea Iannone Suzuki Suzuki 1m39.020s 0.104s 37
3 Tito Rabat Avintia Ducati Ducati 1m39.362s 0.446s 82
4 Danilo Petrucci Pramac Ducati Ducati 1m39.488s 0.572s 41
5 Johann Zarco Tech3 Yamaha Yamaha 1m39.534s 0.618s 72
6 Cal Crutchlow LCR Honda Honda 1m39.727s 0.811s 61
7 Dani Pedrosa Honda Honda 1m39.738s 0.822s 77
8 Alex Rins Suzuki Suzuki 1m39.793s 0.877s 83
9 Maverick Vinales Yamaha Yamaha 1m39.797s 0.881s 85
10 Jack Miller Pramac Ducati Ducati 1m39.799s 0.883s 52
11 Aleix Espargaro Aprilia Aprilia 1m39.915s 0.999s 56
12 Franco Morbidelli MVDS Honda Honda 1m40.004s 1.088s 70
13 Hafizh Syahrin Tech3 Yamaha Yamaha 1m40.108s 1.192s 42
14 Valentino Rossi Yamaha Yamaha 1m40.124s 1.208s 58
15 Bradley Smith KTM KTM 1m40.462s 1.546s 77
16 Takaaki Nakagami LCR Honda Honda 1m40.541s 1.625s 88
17 Pol Espargaro KTM KTM 1m40.721s 1.805s 49
18 Scott Redding Aprilia Aprilia 1m40.732s 1.816s 62
19 Xavier Simeon Avintia Ducati Ducati 1m41.145s 2.229s 74
20 Thomas Luthi MVDS Honda Honda 1m41.207s 2.291s 82
21 Sylvain Guintoli Suzuki Suzuki 1m41.316s 2.400s 62
22 Mika Kallio KTM KTM 1m41.976s 3.060s 16



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