Australia MotoGP: Vinales leads Marquez in bizarre FP3

Only four riders had set a time in the first 20 minutes of the FP3, with the quickest lap more than seven seconds slower than Friday’s benchmark.

Mika Kallio and Pol Espargaro broke the silence by venturing out on track with 23 minutes on the clock, but both returned to the KTM garage at the end of their out laps, neither opting to set a flyer.

Suzuki’s Joan Mir did a similar abortive run and it wasn’t until the final 10 minutes before more timed laps were set, with Marc Marquez leading.

Marquez immediately bettered Zarco’s previous time of 1m35.628s, and then lowered the benchmark further to 1m31.577s.

However, the Honda rider pitted with just over a minute to run, allowing Vinales to snatch the fastest time with 1m31.338s, ensuring he topped the leaderboard for a third consecutive session at Phillip Island.

Espargaro ended up third fastest behind Marquez, nearly 1.5s off the pace, while Zarco was fourth for LCR Honda after improving to 1m33.630s in the closing stages of the session.

Petronas Yamaha’s Fabio Quartararo returned to the track for the first time since his heavy crash in FP1 and set the sixth-fastest time, but it wasn’t enough to earn him an automatic berth in Q2.

Kallio was seventh quickest aboard the second factory KTM, ahead of Alex Rins (Suzuki), Franco Morbidelli (Petronas Yamaha) and Francesco Bagnaia (Pramac Ducati), who completed the top 10.

Avintia’s Karel Abraham and LCR Honda rider Cal Crutchlow were 11th and 12th respectively, with the remaining 10 riders not setting a timed lap due to tricky conditions.

The session was red-flagged early on when Jack Miller’s pitboard was bizarrely blown away by heavy wind, falling on the start/finish straight.

With times more than three seconds off Friday’s pace, there was no change in the overall classifications, meaning both Quartararo and Zarco will have to go through Q1, along with Honda’s Jorge Lorenzo. 

Session results:

Cla	#	Rider	Bike	Time	Gap
1	12	Maverick Viñales	Yamaha	01'31.338
2	93	Marc Marquez	Honda	01'31.577	00.239
3	44	Pol Espargaro	KTM	01'32.989	01.651
4	5	Johann Zarco	Honda	01'33.630	02.292
5	43	Jack Miller	Ducati	01'34.248	02.910
6	20	Fabio Quartararo	Yamaha	01'34.844	03.506
7	82	Mika Kallio	KTM	01'35.051	03.713
8	42	Alex Rins	Suzuki	01'35.263	03.925
9	21	Franco Morbidelli	Yamaha	01'35.473	04.135
10	63	Francesco Bagnaia	Ducati	01'35.747	04.409
11	17	Karel Abraham	Ducati	01'35.990	04.652
12	35	Cal Crutchlow	Honda	01'47.649	16.311
13	4	Andrea Dovizioso	Ducati
14	9	Danilo Petrucci	Ducati
15	29	Andrea Iannone	Aprilia
16	36	Joan Mir	Suzuki
17	41	Aleix Espargaro	Aprilia
18	46	Valentino Rossi	Yamaha
19	53	Tito Rabat	Ducati
20	55	Hafizh Syahrin	KTM
21	88	Miguel Oliveira	KTM
22	99	Jorge Lorenzo	Honda
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