Lorenzo responds to Stoner

After Casey Stoner had led the first two practice sessions at the Commercialbank Grand Prix of Qatar, Jorge Lorenzo took control of the final session on Friday to set the best lap in FP3 and raise expectations for an exciting qualifying run on Saturday. The Yamaha Factory Racing rider put in a lap of 1'55.302 to top the timesheet, as he responded to the reigning World Champion's earlier efforts. The MotoGP™ riders, who completed their first practice on Thursday, were out on track twice on Friday evening under the Losail International Circuit floodlights as they undertook the second and third sessions. Completing a superb FP3 display in second position was Cal Crutchlow (Monster Yamaha Tech 3), who was just 0.154s off Lorenzo with a time of 1'55.456. Repsol Honda rider Stoner ended the last practice third fastest in a time of 1'55.674, although he did meet some on-track traffic when trying to put in one last flying lap before the 45 minutes were up. Andrea Dovizioso complemented his Monster Yamaha Tech 3 team-mate Crutchlow's impressive display with the fourth best time, and the Italian was the last rider to run under 1'56”. Dani Pedrosa (Repsol Honda), who had a fall in the earlier FP2 session, showed little after effects as he lapped fifth fastest at 0.812s off Lorenzo. Héctor Barberá (Pramac Racing) was the highest placing Ducati in sixth with factory team riders Nicky Hayden and Valentino Rossi in seventh and eighth respectively. Rookie Stefan Bradl (LCR Honda) and Álvaro Bautista of the San Carlo Honda Gresini team completed the top 10. Ben Spies (Yamaha Factory Racing) only rode eight laps in the session, after crashing just 10 minutes in, and the American ended 11th on the timesheet as the only rider unable to improve on his time from the earlier practice. Randy de Puniet (Power Electronics Aspar) was again the quickest CRT rider in 13th, although the Frenchman had a fall at the very end of the session which left him limping away from his Aprilia machine. NGM Mobile Forward Racing's Colin Edwards, on a BMW-powered Suter, kept the competition with De Puniet close at just 0.049s off his rival. After completing their first two practice sessions on day one, the Moto2™ and Moto3™ classes were out on track just once on Friday for their third and final outing before Saturday's qualifying. In Moto2 Thomas Lüthi's (Interwetten Paddock) strong form rolled on in FP3 as the Swiss rider topped the timesheet with the fastest lap of the weekend so far. Lüthi's time of 2'00.479 meant he completed a clean sweep in all three Moto2 practice sessions, after leading the first and second outings. Pons 40 HP Tuenti team-mates Pol Espargaró and Esteve Rabat were also in the mood for setting fast times, as the former clocked in at just 0.040s off Lüthi. Espargaró was the only other rider under 2'01” in the session, with Rabat in third posting a best effort of 2'01.118. Scott Redding (Marc VDS Racing Team) was fourth in the order in 2'01.230, with Italians Claudio Corti (Italtrans), Simone Corsi (Came IodaRacing Project) and Andrea Iannone (Speed Master) closely grouped from fifth to seventh. Bradley Smith (Tech 3 Racing) took a step forward and was the last rider within one second of Lüthi's scorching lap, and Marc Márquez (Team CatalunyaCaixa Repsol) and Alex de Angelis (NGM Mobile Forward Racing) completed the top 10. Sandro Cortese (Red Bull KTM Ajo) was the fastest Moto3 rider on Friday as the German rider posted a best time of 2'08.342 to top the timesheet in the 40-minute run, and he pulled off a great save at the end to avoid tarnishing his session with a late crash. Despite being the best of the session Cortese's time was still not the fastest of the three practices combined. That lap remained Maverick Viñales' (Blusens Avintia) effort from FP2 (2'08.160) which the young Spaniard set on Thursday. Second to Cortese in FP3 was Italian rookie Romano Fenati (Team Italia FMI), who continued to generate excitement about his World Championship debut with a lap of 2'08.376, just 0.034s off top spot. Luis Salom (RW Racing GP) completed the top three at a tenth-of-a-second off Cortese, with Viñales fourth in the final session and just 0.135s off P1. Miguel Oliveira (Estrella Galicia 0'0), Danny Kent (Red Bull KTM Ajo) and Alex Rins (Estrella Galicia 0'0) were the final three riders within a second of the top time in the practice, and Héctor Faubel (Bankia Aspar Team), Alexis Masbou (Caretta Technology) and another newcomer Niccolò Antonelli (San Carlo Honda Gresini Moto3) completed the top 10.