MotoGP: Bradl grabs late practice top spot

Stefan Bradl set the pace in the third MotoGP practice session for the Catalunya Grand Prix at Barcelona.

The LCR Honda rider waited until the final seconds of the session to post a 1m41.357s to outpace factory Honda man Marc Marquez by nearly two tenths of a second.

Marquez, aiming to grab his seventh straight pole in qualifying, had led the times for most of the session.

Forward rider Aleix Espargaro was third fastest ahead of Tech 3's Bradley Smith and Dani Pedrosa on the second works Honda.

Yamaha's Jorge Lorenzo and Valentino Rossi were sixth and seventh, respectively, with Yonny Hernandez springing a surprise by going eighth quickest and securing a place in Q2. Andrea Dovizioso and Alvaro Bautista completed the top 10.

Pedrosa was the early pacesetter in the session, but with a couple of laps that were still slower than Aleix Espargaro's effort from Friday. Marquez moved to the top of the times some 12 minutes into the session, the championship leader bettering Espargaro's time by around a tenth of a second.

The only other significant improvement over the following 30 minutes came from Bradl, who jumped up to fourth. It was not until the final five minutes when the rest of the riders began to up their pace, with Lorenzo moving to fourth ahead of Pol Espargaro and Rossi.

Bradl left it until the final seconds of the session to set the quickest time of the weekend so far to secure first place, while Marquez did not improve on his earlier time.

The most significant incident of the session took place with 20 minutes to go, when Pol Espargaro overshot Turn 5 and ended up falling at slow speed in the gravel as he tried to stop his bike. The Spaniard got up quickly and did not even return to the pits before completing more laps.

Scott Redding also had a scare when he visited the gravel moments later, but he managed to ride back into the pits without further drama.

Pedrosa escaped a crash with 10 minutes to go after going off at the La Caixa corner, the Honda rider stopping his bike right before hitting the barriers.