Vinales maintains FP3 advantage amid Quartararo drama, Ducati forced into Q1

Maverick Vinales holds firm at the top of the practice timesheets at Aragon, as Fabio Quartararo suffers a heavy fall and Ducati fail to get any of its bikes into Q2 automatically

Ollie Barstow

17 Oct 2020

Maverick Vinales, Aragon MotoGP. 16 October 2020
© Gold and Goose

UPDATE from Petronas: News about Fabio: rider is OK. He has pain in the hip, but Xrays confirmed that nothing is broken.

Maverick Vinales avoided the drama around him to retain the top spot in third and final free practice for the Aragon MotoGP, but his efforts were overshadowed by a huge accident involving his title rival Fabio Quartararo.

The Frenchman - who was still third fastest on the timesheets - suffered a high-side under braking at the tricky Turn 14, scene of a crash for him yesterday too, with the Petronas SRT Yamaha beginning to fold beneath him before biting and bucking him the other direction.

Flicking him into the air - albeit not before a nasty strike from the bucking Yamaha - Quartararo came down heavily on his left side, prompting him to grab his shoulder initially. Needing help to get up, Quartararo eventually took the available stretcher before being transferred to the medical centre.

The incident could mark a huge blow for Quartararo - who leads Joan Mir by 10 points in the standings - in his title aspirations, even if he gets on track again today and finds himself compromised by his condition.

Indeed, the fall - one of a handful to occur on the downhill run to Turn 14 under braking - will shine a light on the cool conditions, with organisers having attempted to circumnavigate this by starting the FP3 session one hour later.

The delay meant most riders were able to go quicker than FP2, though the leading riders remained relatively similar.

Though more than a second slower than his Friday best, Vinales was still quickest overall, leading a Yamaha 1-2-3 still with Franco Morbidelli second and the hobbled Quartararo retaining third position.

A strong session for Honda, Cal Crutchlow - who almost fell foul at Turn 14 himself - hauled the LCR Honda up to fourth, one of three RC213Vs to make it into Q2 directly including Takaaki Nakagami in eighth and for the first time this year, Alex Marquez in seventh.

Pol Espargaro flew the flag for KTM in an encouraging fifth best, while Suzuki has both of its riders in Q2 with Mir - who will be watching out for updates on Quartararo - sixth and Alex Rins in ninth. Aleix Espargaro picked up the 10th and final Q2 position for Aprilia.

One bonus for Quartararo, however, will be the fact Ducati continues to struggle in the conditions with not one of its six bikes making it through into Q2.

Andrea Dovizioso suffered his own fall at Turn 6, but was able to get back to the pit-lane, though even then he could do no better than 13th. In fact, Ducati filled six of the final nine spots on the timesheets, while KTM assumed the other three.