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Lorenzo Dominates Free Practice 2 and 3, Sets Blistering Pace for the Silverstone Round

Jorge Lorenzo dominated Free Practice 3 this morning at Silverstone, showing that his lead in FP2 yesterday afternoon was nowhere near a coincidence. Like always, the best lap times arrived late in the session, with excellent performance from three British riders.
Jorge Lorenzo, Silverstone 2015 FP3 12 photos
Photo: motogp.com
Silverstone 2015, free practice, DoviziosoSilverstone 2015, free practice, Bradley SmithSilverstone 2015, free practice, Aleix EspargaroSilverstone 2015, free practice, Scott ReddingSilverstone 2015, free practice, Marc MarquezSilverstone 2015, free practice< Jorge LorenzoSilverstone 2015, free practice, LorenzoSilverstone 2015, free practiceSilverstone 2015, free practiceSilverstone 2015, free practiceSilverstone 2015, free practice
In the penultimate lap of this third outing, Lorenzo pushed hard and literally rode to the extreme. The Yamaha rider not only beat the lap time the defending with which champion Marc Marquez led much of the session, but improved it by a whopping half of a second.

Lorenzo lapped around Silverstone in 2'01.429, followed by Marquez, 0.459 seconds behind. Andrea Dovizioso was also fiercely quick late in the session and squeezed into the third, a mere 0.081 behind the Repsol Honda rider. Dani Pedrosa finished in fourth, and the crowds were delighted to see local hero Scott Redding putting in a glorious lap for the fifth position ahead of Q2.

Britain's got speed

Redding's performance is even better as before his flying lap, he was in the 11th position, therefore heading for Q1. Another Brit, Bradley Smith was only 6 thousandths of a second slower, but getting the better of Valentino Rossi, who seems to struggle a bit with the bike.

Finally, a third Englishman goes through to Q2. Cal Crutchlow was also with his back to the wall before he upped his pace to put in the 8th-fastest lap of Free Practice 3. The top ten was complete with Pol Espargaro and Andrea Iannone.

Suzuki's Aleix Espargaro and Maverick Vinales were 11th and 12th, and will have to make battle with the rest of the riders before hoping to get a Q2 chance. Aleix also crashed at high speed in the session, but was unscathed.

The sun shines at Silverstone, and the ground temperature is 21 Celsius (70 F). Still, it looks like the changing British weather will have a major say in the Qualifying sessions later today. Even more, the forecast is still iffy for tomorrow, making tire choice a crucial factor in the outcome of the race.
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