Dovizioso tops FP3, Marquez crashes into Q1

Full MotoGP FP3 results from Thailand

Andrea Dovizioso has retained top spot in the third practice session at Buriram while runaway MotoGP world championship leader Marc Marquez crashed on his final flying lap which saw him drop out of the top ten and miss out on the automatic Q2 spots.

Dovizioso tops FP3, Marquez crashes into Q1

Full MotoGP FP3 results from Thailand

Andrea Dovizioso has retained top spot in the third practice session at Buriram while runaway MotoGP world championship leader Marc Marquez crashed on his final flying lap which saw him drop out of the top ten and miss out on the automatic Q2 spots.

While the Ducati riders continued to show strong pace during the FP3 long runs, Dovizioso edged out Pramac Ducati’s Jack Miller to take top spot with a new fastest lap of 1m 30.399s, using new soft front and reary tyres.

But the drama unfolded at Repsol Honda with Marquez gradually slipping down the order having failed to set an early lap time to give him a bigger gap to his Q2 rivals. With five minutes to go in FP3, the reigning MotoGP world champion appeared to be hit by a technical issue at the final corner and duly pitted but coming back out for a final-lap dash he lowsided off at Turn 4.

The crash condemned Marquez to 11th place in both FP3 and on the combined times to miss out on the automatic Q2 spots.

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With Dovizioso leading Miller at the end of FP3, Movistar Yamaha’s charge continued to deliver promise with Maverick Vinales slotting into third place ahead of LCR Honda’s Cal Crutchlow. Danilo Petrucci shrugged off a difficult Friday practice to take fifth place on the Pramac Ducati ahead of Repsol Honda’s Dani Pedrosa.

Valentino Rossi has forgotten his Aragon practice disaster by ending FP3 seventh fastest to book his Q2 place, while a late lap from Andrea Iannone saw him place his Suzuki eighth overall.

Johann Zarco (Monster Yamaha Tech 3) and Alvaro Bautista (Angel Nieto Ducati) both notched up late improvements which saw Marquez shuffled down to 11th, with Marc VDS Honda’s Franco Morbidelli narrowly missing out in 12th.

Red Bull KTM showed encouraging practice pace with Bradley Smith taking 13th just ahead of team-mate Pol Espargaro in 14th place with his brother Aleix Espargaro one spot behind on the Aprilia.

Alex Rins’ frustrations continued for Suzuki in Thailand down in 16th place.

Jorge Lorenzo will miss the remainder of the Thailand round for Ducati due to injury following his heavy highside crash midway through Friday’s FP2 session.

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