Italian Franco Morbidelli came out on top of an ultra tight Czech MotoGP third free practice on Saturday with just a quarter of a second splitting the first 10 riders.
Morbidelli, on Yamaha’s satellite SRT bike, took the honours ahead of Johann Zarco and his teammate Fabio Quartararo.
Quaratararo is gunning for his third straight win from pole after taking the coronavirus-curtailed season’s opening two races at Jerez last month.
World champion Marc Marquez missed the second of those and is absent again as he recovers from another bout of surgery on the arm he broke in a first race crash.
Ducati’s Andrea Dovizioso, one of the favourites for Sunday’s race after winning in Brno in 2018 and finishing second last year, came in 13th.
Combined times of the three free practice sessions:
1.Franco Morbidelli (ITA/Yamaha-SRT) 1min 56.037sec, 2. Johann Zarco (FRA/Ducati-Avintia) at 0.016, 3. Fabio Quartararo (FRA/Yamaha-SRT) 0.097, 4. Pol Espargaro (ESP/KTM) 0.103, 5. Valentino Rossi (ITA/Yamaha) 0.113, 6. Aleix Espargaro (ESP/Aprilia) 0.146, 7. Joan Mir (ESP/Suzuki) 0.224, 8. Cal Crutchlow (GBR/Honda-LCR) 0.226, 9. Maverick Vinales (ESP/Yamaha) 0.245, 10. Danilo Petrucci (ITA/Ducati) 0.257
