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Jerez 2011 - Moto2 - FP3 - Full session

Saturday, 2 April 2011

Qatar race winner Stefan Bradl (Viessmann Kiefer Racing) set the fastest lap time in the third and final practice session for the Gran Premio bwin de España. Spanish star Marc Márquez (Team Catalunya Caixa Repsol) was second fastest ahead of Thomas Lüthi (Interwetten Paddock Moto2) who had been the fastest rider overall on Friday.

Under grey clouds but with a temperature of around 24 degrees, times were quicker than the first two practice sessions and the German rider’s best lap of 1’43:300 was two tenths faster than the time set by Luthi yesterday. Bradl’s lap in FP3 was 0.404 ahead of Márquez who put in a late effort to jump up to second place. The Swiss rider was close in pursuit, 0.415 off Bradl’s fastest time.

Yuki Takahashi (Gresini Racing) who was fastest on Friday, continued his good form with fourth in the final session before qualifying. The Japanese rider finished in fourth place last year at this circuit, less than six-tenths off the winner. Julián Simón (Mapfre Aspar) was fifth quickest, with a 0.505 deficit to Bradl. The Spaniard has been on pole before in Jerez in the 125cc class so will be hoping to build on his performance after finishing 8th here in 2010.

Claudio Corti (Italtrans Racing) was sixth quickest, ahead of fellow compatriot Michele Pirro (Gresini Racing Moto2). Aleix Espargaró (Pons Racing) who came 15th in the MotoGP race here last season, was eighth fastest, with a 0.909 deficit to Bradl. The final two spots in the top ten went to the current World Supersport Champion, Kenan Sofuoglu (Technomag-CIP) who is in his first full year of Moto2 and Simone Corsi (Ioda Racing Project).

The top 12 riders in FP3 were all within one second of each other, whilst the top 29 riders were within a two second margin.

Mike di Meglio (Tech 3) crashed out in the final five minutes of the third practice but was able to walk away unscathed.