Marquez keeps hold of top spot from Vinales
Full Austrian MotoGP FP3 results
Marc Marquez has retained the top of the timesheet in FP3 at the Austrian MotoGP in front of Maverick Vinales and Ducati duo Andrea Dovizioso and Danilo Petrucci, with Valentino Rossi bolting into the automatic Q2 spots late on.
Full Austrian MotoGP FP3 results
Marc Marquez has retained the top of the timesheet in FP3 at the Austrian MotoGP in front of Maverick Vinales and Ducati duo Andrea Dovizioso and Danilo Petrucci, with Valentino Rossi bolting into the automatic Q2 spots late on.
The Repsol Honda rider led the majority Saturday morning session, briefly displaced by Vinales with 10 minutes to go, but on the fresh soft tyre run Marquez produced a stunning 1m 23.251s to pull out a 0.340s margin on the Monster Yamaha rider at the Red Bull Ring.
Factory Ducati pair Dovizioso and Petrucci traded lap times over the closing minutes of the session, with both riders setting identical best times of 1m 23.593s which saw Dovizioso take third place having set the lap earlier in FP3.
Fabio Quartararo slotted into fifth place for Petronas Yamaha with his final lap to edge out Rossi in sixth but the nine-time world champion held on to an automatic Q2 spot having ended Friday practice outside of the top 10.
With focus around his future dominating the headlines, Jack Miller was shuffled down to seventh place for Pramac Ducati ahead of LCR Honda’s Takaaki Nakagami.
Suzuki’s Alex Rins claimed ninth with Pol Espargaro on the Red Bull KTM taking the final Q2 spot in 10th place.
That left Cal Crutchlow to miss out in 11th place for LCR Honda by just 0.052s with Tech3 KTM’s Miguel Oliveira impressing again in 12th place.
Franco Morbidelli continued to struggle off the pace of his fellow Yamaha riders in 13th place for the Sepang-run team, with Johann Zarco in 14th for Red Bull KTM.
Francesco Bagnaia claimed 15th place for Pramac Ducati ahead of Avintia Ducati’s Tito Rabat and Aprilia duo Aleix Esparagaro and Andrea Iannone.
Karel Abraham (Avintia Ducati), Stefan Bradl (Repsol Honda) and Hafizh Syahrin rounded out the FP3 times, with Suzuki’s Joan Mir and Honda’s Jorge Lorenzo both out with separate injuries.
