This morning’s free practice at Estoril on a damp and slippery track was for most of the riders was done halfheartedly with more or less the attitude of ‘if we have to’ let’s put in some laps without taking to many risks, with several riders electing to sit it out until the last five minutes of the practice.

Due to the dampness, lap times were more than 9 seconds off of yesterday’s times and the surprise of the session was that Loris Capirossi on his Pramac Ducati ended up being the fastest rider after putting in an impressive run of fast laps, at least for a track in these conditions.

Taking second was Jorge Lorenzo who was a half of a second from the veteran Italian rider in a not to serious last lap lunge, while Nicky Hayden also in a last lunge took the third spot from team mate Valentino Rossi, but he was 1.440s from Capirossi.

Following Rossi was who else but Casey Stoner, and we can safely say that Rossi did not follow Stoner like a dog and grab a tow to make his lap time as the Repsol Honda rider was 3.161s from the top spot. Sixth and seventh went to the other Repsol Honda riders, Andrea Dovizioso and Dani Pedrosa.

While Toni Elias, Marco Simoncelli and Randy de Puniet rounded out the top ten and Alvaro Bautista sat out the session, waiting for qualifying this afternoon.

MotoGP Estoril FP3 results:

01- Loris Capirossi – Pramac Racing Team – Ducati Desmosedici GP11 – 1’44.515
02- Jorge Lorenzo – Yamaha Factory Racing Team – Yamaha YZR M1 – + 0.564
03- Nicky Hayden – Ducati Marlboro Team – Ducati Desmosedici GP11 – + 1.440
04- Valentino Rossi – Ducati Marlboro Team – Ducati Desmosedici GP11 – + 1.966
05- Casey Stoner – Repsol Honda Team – Honda RC212V – + 3.161
06- Andrea Dovizioso – Repsol Honda Team – Honda RC212V – + 3.334
07- Dani Pedrosa – Repsol Honda Team – Honda RC212V – + 3.587
08- Toni Elias – LCR Honda MotoGP – Honda RC212V – + 3.625
09- Marco Simoncelli – San Carlo Honda Gresini – Honda RC212V – + 4.602
10- Randy De Puniet – Pramac Racing Team – Ducati Desmosedici GP11 – + 6.381
11- Karel Abraham – Cardion AB Motoracing – Ducati Desmosedici GP11 – + 6.982
12- Colin Edwards – Monster Yamaha Tech 3 – Yamaha YZR M1 – + 7.096
13- Ben Spies – Yamaha Factory Racing Team – Yamaha YZR M1 – + 7.596
14- Hector Barbera – Mapfre Aspar Team – Ducati Desmosedici GP11 – + 8.189
15- Hiroshi Aoyama – San Carlo Honda Gresini – Honda RC212V – + 9.155
16- Cal Crutchlow – Monster Yamaha Tech 3 – Yamaha YZR M1 – + 9.357

(no votes)

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