Valencia MotoGP: Marquez quickest in FP3, Vinales into Q1
MotoGP title favourite Marc Marquez topped Saturday morning's third practice session at Valencia, while Maverick Vinales will have to fight through Q1 after ending up outside the top 10.
Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images
Honda rider Marquez took the lead early in the session and established a dominant lead with a laptime of 1m30.939s.
He had a seven-tenth gap over Andrea Iannone at the time, but as the session progressed, Johann Zarco took over as Marquez's main challenger, going as close 0.002s with five minutes to go.
Marquez then went even quicker, his 1m30.255s beating Jorge Lorenzo's Friday benchmark time.
Tech 3 Yamaha's Zarco and Suzuki man Iannone ended up in second and third with identical laptimes, as Lorenzo grabbed fourth.
Alex Rins was fifth on the second Suzuki, followed by Ducati test rider Michele Pirro and Jack Miller, who is spending his last race weekend with Marc VDS Honda.
Valentino Rossi had a low-key session and looked set to miss out on a Q2 spot until a last-minute improvement that put him eighth, ahead of Dani Pedrosa, just as the chequered flag fell.
All nine aforementioned riders booked a place in Q2 along with Andrea Dovizioso, who was only 16th in the session but eighth in the combined times on the strength of a strong Friday lap.
Vinales was only 13th in FP3, and will have to battle through Q1 along with Honda and Ducati satellite riders Cal Crutchlow and Danilo Petrucci.
The session featured five crashes, two from Tito Rabat (Marc VDS Honda) and one each for Aleix Espargaro (Aprilia), Miller, and Scott Redding (Pramac Ducati).
FP3 results
Cla | # | Rider | Bike | Time | Gap |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | 93 | Marc Marquez* | Honda | 1'30.255 | |
2 | 5 | Johann Zarco* | Yamaha | 1'30.501 | 0.246 |
3 | 29 | Andrea Iannone* | Suzuki | 1'30.501 | 0.246 |
4 | 99 | Jorge Lorenzo* | Ducati | 1'30.603 | 0.348 |
5 | 42 | Alex Rins* | Suzuki | 1'30.846 | 0.591 |
6 | 51 | Michele Pirro* | Ducati | 1'30.883 | 0.628 |
7 | 43 | Jack Miller* | Honda | 1'31.031 | 0.776 |
8 | 46 | Valentino Rossi* | Yamaha | 1'31.037 | 0.782 |
9 | 26 | Dani Pedrosa* | Honda | 1'31.049 | 0.794 |
10 | 41 | Aleix Espargaro | Aprilia | 1'31.098 | 0.843 |
11 | 44 | Pol Espargaro | KTM | 1'31.117 | 0.862 |
12 | 35 | Cal Crutchlow | Honda | 1'31.134 | 0.879 |
13 | 25 | Maverick Viñales | Yamaha | 1'31.320 | 1.065 |
14 | 9 | Danilo Petrucci | Ducati | 1'31.402 | 1.147 |
15 | 38 | Bradley Smith | KTM | 1'31.407 | 1.152 |
16 | 4 | Andrea Dovizioso* | Ducati | 1'31.460 | 1.205 |
17 | 53 | Tito Rabat | Honda | 1'31.522 | 1.267 |
18 | 19 | Alvaro Bautista | Ducati | 1'31.593 | 1.338 |
19 | 22 | Sam Lowes | Aprilia | 1'31.595 | 1.340 |
20 | 36 | Mika Kallio | KTM | 1'31.617 | 1.362 |
21 | 17 | Karel Abraham | Ducati | 1'31.704 | 1.449 |
22 | 8 | Hector Barbera | Ducati | 1'31.710 | 1.455 |
23 | 45 | Scott Redding | Ducati | 1'31.969 | 1.714 |
24 | 76 | Loris Baz | Ducati | 1'32.804 | 2.549 |
25 | 60 | Michael van der Mark | Yamaha | 1'32.825 | 2.570 |
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