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Up to last year, we were accustomed to seeing them break away at the front. This time, they risk someone throwing a spanner in the works. The duel between Marc Marquez and Maverick Viñales continued even in warm-up. The two were the only riders to drop below the 2’05 mark, demonstrating their superiority. In fact, no one seems to be able to get close to the leading pair, especially in terms of race pace, consistently around 2’04”.
In the Sunday morning session, the Honda standard-bearer stopped the clock at 2’04”070 and his Yamaha-riding compatriot was almost two tenths behind (+0.169), improving T3 to demonstrate that the challenge for the top step of the podium will be an all-Spanish affair. And then comes the group of followers, led by Daniel Pedrosa, more than one second behind the leaders, though (+1.240). Just 82 thousandths behind him is Valentino Rossi who, unlike his teammate, preferred working on the hard tyre.
The Doctor is a tenth ahead of Cal Crutchlow’s LCR Honda at one and a half seconds from the leader (+1.436), followed by Johann Zarco’s Tech3 Yamaha, ready to astonish in the battle for the bottom step of the podium. For the Ducati riders, it was an uphill session. The best of them was Danilo Petrucci (+1.712), eighth ahead of Aleix Espargaró’s Aprilia, followed by Andrea Dovizioso’s GP17 (+1.785). For the Red bikes it looks like the race will be an uphill battle on a track where, in the last three editions, they had always been on the podium.
Jorge Lorenzo was out of the top ten (+1.979), twelfth behind Andrea Iannone’s Suzuki (+1.925). Inconsequential crashes for Scott Redding and Alvaro Bautista, the latter celebrating his birthday on pit lane, as is Alex Marquez.
