Portuguese MotoGP: Quartararo fastest in FP3, Marquez to Q1

It’s unclear what happened in the crash, but Martin was on an out-lap when he went down at Turn 7 and was violently thrown through the gravel.

He has been taken to the medical centre for checks and was declared conscious, though had to be stretchered off track.

Despite most heading out on medium rubber for the start of FP3, several improvements on the combined order came immediately.

KTM’s Miguel Oliveira – who is unhappy with the front tyre allocation this weekend – found a tenth on his FP2 best in ninth, before leaping up to ninth while Petronas SRT’s Franco Morbidelli moved to ninth ahead of Aprilia’s Aleix Espargaro.

Morbidelli got into a minor scrape with Takaaki Nakagami early in FP3, the Italian making slight contact with the LCR rider up at the Turn 11 Portimao corner having caught him cruising on the racing line.

Nakagami had to go to the medical centre midway through FP3 for painkilling injections in the shoulder he hurt in his terrifying high-speed crash at Turn 1 in FP2, but returned to action in the closing stages.

World championship leader Johann Zarco set the pace on the individual timesheets after 10 minutes with a 1m40.008s, which put him second overall.

This stood as the best time of the morning until Espargaro on the Aprilia bested Francesco Bagnaia’s quickest time from Friday with a 1m39.690s with 20 minutes to go on a fresh soft slick.

Espargaro’s reign was ended by Jack Miller on the factory Ducati, who moved clear with a 1m39.345s seven minutes later as the rest of the field took to the track to begin their quests for a direct Q2 place.

Quartararo spread the field further with his first time attack lap in the closing stages having spent much of FP3 working on used tyre pace with the medium compound.

The Yamaha rider’s first soft tyre effort with just under 10 minutes to go put him top of the pile as he produced a 1m39.044s.

Morbidelli cut his former teammate’s advantage to just 0.051s moments later, before the session was halted with 4m11s remaining after a big crash for Pramac rookie Martin.

When the session got back underway at 10:48am local time, almost the entire field exited pitlane together to try and secure a place in Q2.

Quartararo’s 1m39.044s came unchallenged at the end, with the Frenchman leading Morbidelli and a late improver in Bagnaia in third.

Zarco leaped up to fourth on his Pramac Ducati late on ahead of Suzuki’s Alex Rins, with Jack Miller ensuring both factory Ducati riders have gone straight into Q2.

Avintia rookie Luca Marini will make his first Q2 appearance in MotoGP after ending FP3 an impressive seventh ahead of Aleix Espargaro, Oliveira and Yamaha’s Maverick Vinales.

A late crash at Turn 3 for Alex Marquez stopped him from advancing into Q2, leaving the Spaniard 11th and in a volatile Q1 group.

World champion Joan Mir could only muster 12th on his Suzuki ahead of Honda’s Pol Espargaro, SRT’s Valentino Rossi and the returning Marc Marquez on the sister works Honda.

Marquez made a mistake on his penultimate flying lap and couldn’t improve on his final effort, leaving him facing Q1.

Qualifying gets underway at 2:10pm local time.

Cla	Rider		Bike	Laps	Time	Gap
1	Fabio Quartararo		Yamaha	18	1'39.044
2	Franco Morbidelli		Yamaha	19	1'39.095	0.051
3	Francesco Bagnaia		Ducati	18	1'39.117	0.073
4	Johann Zarco		Ducati	18	1'39.228	0.184
5	Alex Rins		Suzuki	20	1'39.328	0.284
6	Jack Miller		Ducati	17	1'39.345	0.301
7	Luca Marini		Ducati	18	1'39.600	0.556
8	Aleix Espargaro		Aprilia	15	1'39.690	0.646
9	Miguel Oliveira		KTM	19	1'39.697	0.653
10	Maverick Viñales		Yamaha	22	1'39.742	0.698
11	Alex Marquez		Honda	20	1'39.796	0.752
12	Joan Mir		Suzuki	19	1'39.818	0.774
13	Pol Espargaro		Honda	19	1'39.828	0.784
14	Valentino Rossi		Yamaha	22	1'39.912	0.868
15	Marc Marquez		Honda	21	1'39.945	0.901
16	Brad Binder		KTM	17	1'40.196	1.152
17	Danilo Petrucci		KTM	19	1'40.302	1.258
18	Enea Bastianini		Ducati	17	1'40.343	1.299
19	Jorge Martin		Ducati	12	1'41.046	2.002
20	Lorenzo Savadori		Aprilia	17	1'41.190	2.146
21	Takaaki Nakagami		Honda	9	1'41.566	2.522
22	Iker Lecuona		KTM	19	1'41.568	2.524
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