Barcelona MotoGP: Marquez tops FP3, disaster for Yamaha

Following rider criticism, a new-for-2017 chicane was dropped overnight, with MotoGP reverting to Barcelona’s Formula 1 layout, used for last year’s race.

With that, times from Friday’s two practice sessions were effectively wiped, with only this session determining the 10 riders progressing directly into Q2.

While Marquez led the way by a tenth, Vinales and Rossi could only manage 13th and 15th - the brand having elected not to test at Barcelona with rivals last month - and will both contest the first phase of qualifying.

Marquez and Alvaro Bautista led the way after the first flying laps, but both crashed at Turn 10 seven minutes into the session.

Aprilia’s Aleix Espargaro displaced Marquez at the top of the order 15 minutes in with a 1m45.198s, but when the world champion rejoined on his second Honda, Marquez turned a 1m45.087s five minutes later.

Having struggled on Friday, Vinales vaulted up to become Marquez’s closest challenger almost immediately, the Yamaha rider slotting in just 0.002 seconds adrift.

Championship leader Vinales ultimately failed to improve, while Rossi found time late, but only enough to move from 18th to 15th on his penultimate lap, the pair more than seven tenths off.

On his second bike, like Marquez, Aspar Ducati’s Bautista started the late-session shootout on soft tyres with 15 minutes to go when he went fastest by nearly half-a-second with a 1m44.594s.

Espargaro beat that by 0.007s with seven minutes remaining, his new benchmark a 1m44.587s lowered by Dani Pedrosa’s 1m44.279s with three minutes to go.

Marquez got back on top with a 1m44.178s entering the final minute and was not beaten, finishing 0.101s clear of teammate Pedrosa, with Bautista and Espargaro rounding out the top four.

Ducati’s Andrea Dovizioso and Jorge Lorenzo finished fourth and fifth, Dovizioso improving late from 17th on the timesheets, ahead of Suzuki’s Andrea Iannone.

Pramac Ducati pair Scott Redding and Danilo Petrucci and Avintia Ducati’s Hector Barbera completed the top 10 and secured the remaining Q2 spots.

Jonas Folger and Cal Crutchlow missed out by 0.063s to Barbera, while Folger’s Tech 3 Yamaha teammate Johann Zarco was 16th, having crashed at Turn 9 mid-session.

FP3 results:

Pos.	#	Rider	Bike	Laps	Time	Gap
1	93	Marc Marquez	Honda	18	1'44.178
2	26	Dani Pedrosa	Honda	18	1'44.279	0.101
3	19	Alvaro Bautista	Ducati	18	1'44.395	0.217
4	41	Aleix Espargaro	Aprilia	16	1'44.409	0.231
5	4	Andrea Dovizioso	Ducati	15	1'44.615	0.437
6	99	Jorge Lorenzo	Ducati	18	1'44.623	0.445
7	29	Andrea Iannone	Suzuki	18	1'44.656	0.478
8	45	Scott Redding	Ducati	18	1'44.676	0.498
9	9	Danilo Petrucci	Ducati	18	1'44.681	0.503
10	8	Hector Barbera	Ducati	18	1'44.740	0.562
11	94	Jonas Folger	Yamaha	18	1'44.763	0.585
12	35	Cal Crutchlow	Honda	18	1'44.803	0.625
13	25	Maverick Viñales	Yamaha	19	1'44.889	0.711
14	76	Loris Baz	Ducati	16	1'44.985	0.807
15	46	Valentino Rossi	Yamaha	19	1'45.053	0.875
16	5	Johann Zarco	Yamaha	16	1'45.240	1.062
17	53	Tito Rabat	Honda	17	1'45.252	1.074
18	43	Jack Miller	Honda	18	1'45.289	1.111
19	50	Sylvain Guintoli	Suzuki	20	1'45.912	1.734
20	44	Pol Espargaro	KTM	19	1'46.243	2.065
21	17	Karel Abraham	Ducati	19	1'46.259	2.081
22	22	Sam Lowes	Aprilia	14	1'46.267	2.089
23	38	Bradley Smith	KTM	16	1'46.853	2.675