MotoGP Laguna Seca, Free Practice 4: Marquez confirms his lead ahead of Bradl

Marc Marquez was also the fastest in the fourth and final free practice session of the MotoGP class at the Mazda Raceway in Laguna Seca. The world championship leader, who has been very strong in the States since yesterday, stopped the clock at a time of 1:21.680, trailing his brand mate Stefan Bradl by 0.210s on the Honda RC213V of Team LCR.

Third time for the Yamaha SAT of Cal Crutchlow's Team Tech 3, also the victim of a fall without physical consequences. The British rider who is looking for an official bike for next year (we are talking about Ducati and Honda), precedes the Honda of Team Gresini of Alvaro Bautista, who since yesterday has been comfortable astride his RC213V with Showa suspension and Nissin brakes.

Also on track were the injured Dani Pedrosa and Jorge Lorenzo, who finished in fifth and sixth place respectively. Different approaches for the two Spaniards, with Lorenzo also on track in the morning free practice, while Pedrosa only ran in the afternoon and will therefore be "forced" to take part in Q1 given that he had not gone beyond the eleventh time in the combined first three sessions .

Behind the two was Valentino Rossi, who worked both from a fast lap perspective and from a race perspective. The Yamaha rider who has a gap from the top of 682 thousandths precedes the first Ducati, that of Andrea Dovizioso. The Forlì native is just 19 thousandths behind Rossi and ahead of Bradley Smith (with the second Yamaha SAT of Team Tech 3) and team-mate Nicky Hayden.

The Italians with the CRTs are Claudio Corti 14th with the FTR Kawasaki of the NGM Mobile Team and Danilo Petrucci from Terni, 17th with the Ioda Suter BMW of the Came Iodaracing Team. Alex de Angelis, who here replaces Ben Spies on a one-off basis aboard the Team Pramac Ducati, instead finished in 15th position.