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Misano MotoGP: Bagnaia smashes lap record in third practice

Pramac Ducati’s Francesco Bagnaia blitzed the Misano lap record to top third practice for the MotoGP Emilia Romagna Grand Prix despite suffering a late crash.

Francesco Bagnaia, Pramac Racing

Francesco Bagnaia, Pramac Racing

Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images

The cooler track conditions caught out a couple of riders in the early stages of FP3, with Pramac’s Jack Miller crashing at the first corner just a few minutes in.

This was followed shortly afterwards by Tech 3’s Miguel Oliveira, who slid off his KTM at the Turn 8 Quercia corner.

Improvements on the combined times were, as ever, few and far between in the opening stages, with Bagnaia moving into a provisional Q2 place in 10th when he went fastest on the individual FP3 timesheet with a 1m32.049s. 

The next relevant combined order change came from Andrea Dovizioso on the factory Ducati, with his 1m31.955s putting him into eighth overall and top of the FP3 times with just under 13 minutes left.

A few minutes later, Bagnaia began lighting up the timing screens and demolished Maverick Vinales’ pole lap record from last Saturday to go fastest of all with a 1m31.127s. 

As the field wound up for time attacks at the end of the session, several riders pushed over the limits and ended up on the deck.

Pol Espargaro, for the second FP3 in a row, crashed in the crucial time attack stages, but got away with it and held onto a place in Q2 in ninth. 

Fellow KTM rider Oliveira crashed again, this time at the Turn 15 left-hander, and took some time to get to his feet after a fast tumble.

At the same moment, Bagnaia crashed at the Turn 6 left-hander where Espargaro crashed just a minute earlier.

But Bagnaia’s 1m31.127s would remain intact as the chequered flag brought the session to a close.

Vinales came close after a tough session for the factory Yamaha rider, with numerous changes to the front of his M1 in a bid to find better grip seemingly not paying off as was repeatedly caught shaking his head on the bike. 

The Spaniard ended FP3 second and just 0.058s off the pace, with Fabio Quartararo completing the top three on his Petronas Yamaha ahead of teammate Franco Morbidelli – who is still suffering from the stomach bug which forced him out of Tuesday’s test at Misano.

Joan Mir was fifth on the Suzuki ahead of Friday pacesetter Brad Binder on the KTM, with Takaaki Nakagami (LCR), Valentino Rossi on the Yamaha, Espargaro and the works Ducati of Danilo Petrucci booking the final direct Q2 places in a top 10 covered by just 0.574s.

No late improvements for the likes of Miller, Avintia’s Johann Zarco in 12th, 14th-placed Dovizioso and Suzuki’s Alex Rins in 17th have created a volatile Q1 group for the first part of qualifying. 

FP3 results:

Cla Rider Bike Time Gap
1 Italy Francesco Bagnaia
Ducati 1'31.127
2 Spain Maverick Viñales
Yamaha 1'31.185 0.058
3 France Fabio Quartararo
Yamaha 1'31.359 0.232
4 Italy Franco Morbidelli
Yamaha 1'31.429 0.302
5 Spain Joan Mir
Suzuki 1'31.626 0.499
6 Italy Valentino Rossi
Yamaha 1'31.680 0.553
7 Italy Danilo Petrucci
Ducati 1'31.701 0.574
8 Japan Takaaki Nakagami
Honda 1'31.753 0.626
9 Australia Jack Miller
Ducati 1'31.760 0.633
10 France Johann Zarco
Ducati 1'31.826 0.699
11 South Africa Brad Binder
KTM 1'31.860 0.733
12 Spain Aleix Espargaro
Aprilia 1'31.790 0.663
13 Italy Andrea Dovizioso
Ducati 1'31.894 0.767
14 Spain Pol Espargaro
KTM 1'31.962 0.835
15 Spain Iker Lecuona
KTM 1'32.229 1.102
16 Portugal Miguel Oliveira
KTM 1'32.260 1.133
17 Spain Alex Rins
Suzuki 1'32.178 1.051
18 Spain Alex Marquez
Honda 1'32.378 1.251
19 United Kingdom Bradley Smith
Aprilia 1'33.021 1.894
20 Spain Tito Rabat
Ducati 1'33.048 1.921
21 Germany Stefan Bradl
Honda

 

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