Motegi MotoGP: Petrucci leads Marquez in wet FP3

Honda man Marquez led a rain-delayed FP3 from virtually start to finish, breaking the 1m55s barrier 15 minutes into the session to put himself comfortably ahead of the opposition.

It wasn’t until 20 minutes to go in the session that any rider was able to lap within one second of Marquez’s best time of 1m54.884s, Suzuki wildcard Sylvain Guintoli impressing to set the second-quickest lap.

It appeared Marquez would end FP3 at the top of the timesheets, but Petrucci fired in a 1m54.710s to snatch the top spot moments after the chequered flag dropped.

Marquez failed to improve on his previous benchmark in his final run and ended up 0.174s behind in second, with Petronas Yamaha’s Franco Morbidelli improving late on to jump up to third.

Maverick Vinales was fourth on the leading factory Yamaha, while Guintoli slipped to fifth ahead of the second Ducati of Andrea Dovizioso and his Suzuki teammate Alex Rins.

Petronas Yamaha’s Fabio Quartararo was eighth, while Pol Espargaro (KTM) and Miguel Oliveira (Tech 3 KTM) completed the top 10.

Valentino Rossi was a distant 12th for Yamaha, while struggling Honda rider Jorge Lorenzo set the 22nd-quickest time in the wet, only ahead of former Moto2 champion Tito Rabat, whose session came to an early halt.

With the entire FP3 taking place on a damp circuit, there was no change in the combined classification, leaving Rins and LCR Honda’s Cal Crutchlow - who trailed in 20th place in FP3 - among others to navigate their way through Q1 in qualifying.

Session results:

Cla	#	Rider	Bike	Time	Gap
1	9	Danilo Petrucci	Ducati	01'54.710
2	93	Marc Marquez	Honda	01'54.884	00.174
3	21	Franco Morbidelli	Yamaha	01'55.175	00.465
4	12	Maverick Viñales	Yamaha	01'55.458	00.748
5	50	Sylvain Guintoli	Suzuki	01'55.590	00.880
6	4	Andrea Dovizioso	Ducati	01'55.722	01.012
7	42	Alex Rins	Suzuki	01'55.796	01.086
8	20	Fabio Quartararo	Yamaha	01'55.811	01.101
9	44	Pol Espargaro	KTM	01'55.824	01.114
10	88	Miguel Oliveira	KTM	01'55.860	01.150
11	36	Joan Mir	Suzuki	01'55.972	01.262
12	46	Valentino Rossi	Yamaha	01'56.230	01.520
13	82	Mika Kallio	KTM	01'56.243	01.533
14	41	Aleix Espargaro	Aprilia	01'56.397	01.687
15	30	Takaaki Nakagami	Honda	01'56.537	01.827
16	17	Karel Abraham	Ducati	01'56.809	02.099
17	35	Cal Crutchlow	Honda	01'56.812	02.102
18	43	Jack Miller	Ducati	01'56.840	02.130
19	63	Francesco Bagnaia	Ducati	01'57.176	02.466
20	29	Andrea Iannone	Aprilia	01'57.226	02.516
21	55	Hafizh Syahrin	KTM	01'57.555	02.845
22	99	Jorge Lorenzo	Honda	01'57.605	02.895
23	53	Tito Rabat	Ducati	01'58.621	03.911
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