MotoGP Phillip Island, Free Practice 3: Stoner confirms his lead

Casey Stoner's dominance continues in "his" Phillip Island, theater of the Air Asia Australian Grand Prix, penultimate stage of the 2012 world championship. After clearly dominating the first two sessions, the Australian from Honda achieved the best time in the Free classes too Practice 3 with a time of 1:29.665, the only rider to go below the 30:XNUMX minute mark.

The reigning Honda champion also gave abysmal leads to the competition in this session; world championship leader Jorge Lorenzo is in fact second at 1.019, while Dani Pedrosa with the second Honda Repsol is third at 1.316. Considering that we are talking about the best MotoGP riders, it is clear that Stoner's feeling with the Australian track is exceptional, also considering that his ankle is not yet 100%.

Cal Crutchlow and Andrea Dovizioso confirm yesterday's performances with the fourth and fifth times, but with gaps of more than a second and a half. The two riders of Team Yamaha Tech 3 riding the YZR-M1 SAT preceded the Honda RC213V SAT of Alvaro Bautista and the surprising Randy de Puniet, seventh with the first CRT, an excellent result considering the usual gaps taken by non-prototype bikes ”. His ART Aprilia of Team Power Electronics Aspar is in fact only nine tenths behind Lorenzo and even six tenths behind Pedrosa's Honda. So congratulations to the Frenchman at Team Aspar.

Stefan Bradl is eighth, with the RC213V SAT of Team LCR; the 2011 Moto2 world champion is followed by Valentino Rossi's Ducati, ninth and trailing Stoner by 2.393. A gap in line with the one taken yesterday and which does not bode well from a qualifying perspective. In the race, things could change, given that the pace of the Pesaro rider is not very far from that set, for example, by Crutchlow and Dovizioso. Rossi precedes Karel Abraham, who closes the Top Ten on the Ducati SAT of Team Cardion AB.

Nicky Hayden did poorly, twelfth and also behind Aleix Espargarò's ART CRT. The American pays 2.701 from Stoner, a truly abysmal gap which when compared to that taken by his team-mate Valentino Rossi drops to just over three tenths.

The Italians with the CRTs are Danilo Petrucci 14th with the Ioda Suter BMW, Roberto Rolfo 15th with the ART of Team Speed ​​Master and Michele Pirro, 17th with the FTR Honda of Team Gresini.