Takaaki Nakagami fastest in FP3, Marc Marquez suffers big crash

Takaaki Nakagami continues his strong weekend at Jerez so far as he topped Saturday morning’s MotoGP FP3 session, while fellow Honda rider Marc Marquez suffers big crash at turn seven.

Robert Jones

01 May 2021

Takaaki Nakagami, MotoGP, Spanish MotoGP 30 April 2021
© Gold and Goose

LCR Honda rider Takaaki Nakagami posted the first sub 1m 37s lap of the weekend at Jerez as he topped MotoGP FP3.

Nakagami’s lap time of 1:36.985s meant he was the only rider to finish under the 1m 37s barrier, after Franco Morbidelli’s initial time of 1:36.684s was deleted due to exceeding track limits.

Nakagami has so far enjoyed a much improved weekend compared to the first three rounds, whilst his fastest time results in direct progress to Q2 for the first time this year.

However, from one Honda to another, the final two minutes of FP3 saw eight-time MotoGP World Champion Marc Marquez suffer his first crash since returning at Portimao.

Sitting just outside the top ten, Marquez was aiming to jump back into the all-important Q2 places where he had been earlier in the session, but as he approached turn seven, the Spaniard lost the front and was sent sliding into the air fence.

Marquez was able to return to his feet but did look in some discomfort before arriving back into the pits on the back of a scooter. Marquez hit the barriers with his right side - the injured arm, but fortunately he seemed to come away from the accident without any damage.

Second was Fabio Quartararo who was the first rider to start the qualifying trim proceedings as he went faster than Francesco Bagnaia’s top time from Q2.

The championship leader didn’t improve on his final run and finished +0.025s down on Nakagami.

In third was the second fastest Honda but perhaps not one we expected, as Stefan Bradl who is a wildcard for the team this weekend put in an impressive lap to claim a top three.

Fourth was 2020 World Champion Joan Mir which marks the first time this year that the Suzuki rider avoids Q1.

Fifth was Aleix Espargaro who was fastest early on during the third session - not combined times. Espargaro has not been outside of the top five at any point so far this weekend.

Sixth was Quartararo’s teammate Maverick Vinales, while Morbidelli concluded the session seventh in the end.

Rounding out the top ten was Bagnaia for Ducati in eighth, Johann Zarco in ninth, and the second Suzuki of Alex Rins in tenth place respectively.