Quartararo keeps top spot from Marquez
Full Valencia MotoGP FP3 results
Fabio Quartararo has maintained his run of topping practice sessions at the Valencia MotoGP keeping clear of late time attacks from Marc Marquez and Jack Miller, in a session littered with heavy falls in cold conditions.
Full Valencia MotoGP FP3 results
Fabio Quartararo has maintained his run of topping practice sessions at the Valencia MotoGP keeping clear of late time attacks from Marc Marquez and Jack Miller, in a session littered with heavy falls in cold conditions.
The Petronas Yamaha rider produced a 1m 30.232s in his late time attack using a fresh soft rear tyre to retain the fastest lap time having led in both FP1 and FP2 on Friday.
But his closest challenger Marquez on the Repsol Honda notched up a stunning race run at the start of FP3, running in the low 1m 31s towards the end of a 15-lap stint, to send out an ominous race pace warning to his rivals.
After an impressive Friday display, Miller followed it up with third place on the Pramac Ducati having displayed Valentino Rossi who briefly headed up the times in the closing stages of FP3.
It marks a strong comeback from the 40-year-old following two heavy falls on Friday which resulted in a complete rebuild of his Monster Energy Yamaha.
Franco Morbidelli saw his charge remain inside the top five for Petronas Yamaha ahead of the factory Yamaha of Maverick Vinales and Ducati duo Danilo Petrucci and Andrea Dovizioso.
With Joan Mir sneaking into the Q2 spots with ninth place for Suzuki, Cal Crutchlow recovered from an early FP3 fall at Turn 10 to hold on to the final top 10 place on the LCR Honda.
That saw Pol Espargaro narrowly miss out in 11th place for Red Bull KTM, 12 months on from securing the Austrian manufacturer’s maiden premier class podium, with Alex Rins missing out on the automatic Q2 spots again for Suzuki.
Johann Zarco couldn’t follow up his Malaysian GP Q2 feat in 13th place for LCR Honda as stand-in for the injured Takaaki Nakagami.
Aleix Espargaro endured a nightmare FP3 with two crashes for Aprilia but he did stay ahead of Repsol Honda’s Jorge Lorenzo who is making the final appearance of his career before retiring at the end of this season.
With Andrea Iannone in 16th place for Aprilia, Michele Pirro was shuffled back to 17th place on his Ducati wildcard outing but he remained in front of Avintia Ducati’s Karel Abraham.
Francesco Bagnaia suffered a shocking premature end to his FP3 when he appeared to lock his front brake exiting pit lane before his final run which sent the MotoGP rookie flying over his handlebars. The Italian rider gingerly walked away from the off before being assessed my medical staff.
With Tito Rabat in 20th place for Avintia Ducati, MotoGP debutant Iker Lecuona impressed by beating two fellow KTM riders in 21st place as he stands in for the injured Miguel Oliveira at Tech3.
Mika Kallio (Red Bull KTM) and Hafizh Syahrin (Tech3 KTM) both failed to improve on their fastest times from Friday which relegated them to the back of the pack.
