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Practice report

Aragon MotoGP: Quartararo tops FP3 as Marquez crashes again

Yamaha’s Fabio Quartararo topped third practice for the MotoGP Aragon Grand Prix by 0.023 seconds as Marc Marquez suffered another crash.

Fabio Quartararo, Yamaha Factory Racing

Fabio Quartararo, Yamaha Factory Racing

Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images

Championship leader Quartararo secured his place in Q2 for qualifying this afternoon after firing in a late 1m46.926s, which was strong enough to just withstand an attack from Aprilia’s Aleix Espargaro with a 1m46.949s.

After 10 minutes of running, only reigning world champion Joan Mir had made an improvement on the combined order.

The Suzuki rider elected against a soft tyre time attack in FP2 on Friday, which left him down in 21st, but leaped to 11th with a 1m48.161s early into the third session.

LCR Honda’s Takaaki Nakagami sat top of the individual session timesheet after the opening 10 minutes and would eventually become the first rider to depose Jack Miller’s Friday best.

With just under 20 minutes remaining, Nakagami moved to the top of the combined standings with a 1m47.394s, which he improved on his following lap to a 1m47.317s.

He headed the Suzuki of Mir by 0.016s at this stage, with LCR Honda’s Alex Marquez in fourth, Aprilia’s Aleix Espargaro in fifth and Miguel Oliveira on the factory KTM in sixth having also had made lap time gains on the combined order.

With just over 10 minutes to go, Quartararo made his first assault on the top of the timesheets with a 1m47.046s, before Francesco Bagnaia dipped into the 1m46s on his factory Ducati with a 1m46.984s.

Mir went 0.002s quicker a few moments later, but Quartararo produced a 1m46.926s on his final flying lap to end FP3 fastest of all from Espargaro.

Mir held onto the top three to comfortably make it into Q2, but is provisionally the only Suzuki set to appear in the pole shootout session after team-mate Alex Rins was only 14th.

Bagnaia was shuffled back to fourth at the chequered flag from teammate Jack Miller and Pramac Ducati’s Jorge Martin.

Pol Espargaro was top Honda runner at the end of FP3 in seventh, just 0.208s off the pace, while teammate Marquez was eighth after crashing at the Turn 14 right-hander on his final flying lap – his second tumble of the Aragon weekend.

Nakagami and Avintia rookie Enea Bastianini completed the top 10 to secure the remaining Q2 places on offer in FP3, with Johann Zarco missing out on his Pramac Ducati by just 0.052s.

Yamaha stand-in Cal Crutchlow was on course for a direct Q2 spot but was shuffled back to 12th in the end ahead of KTM’s Miguel Oliveira, Rins and Petronas SRT’s Valentino Rossi.

Just moments before his brother fell, Alex Marquez crashed at Turn 12 and was left in a Q1 spot as a result down in 16th.

Maverick Vinales will also face Q1 on his Aprilia debut, but was only 0.863s off the best pace in 17th and found a second of lap time compared to Friday.

He headed the second factory KTM of Brad Binder, Tech 3’s Iker Lecuona, Luca Marini on the sister Avintia Ducati, Danilo Petrucci on the second Tech 3 KTM and SRT stand-in Jake Dixon. 

Aragon MotoGP - FP3 results:

Cla Rider Bike Time Gap
1 France Fabio Quartararo
Yamaha 1'46.926
2 Spain Aleix Espargaro
Aprilia 1'46.949 0.023
3 Spain Joan Mir
Suzuki 1'46.982 0.056
4 Italy Francesco Bagnaia
Ducati 1'46.984 0.058
5 Australia Jack Miller
Ducati 1'47.059 0.133
6 Spain Jorge Martin
Ducati 1'47.120 0.194
7 Spain Pol Espargaro
Honda 1'47.134 0.208
8 Spain Marc Marquez
Honda 1'47.185 0.259
9 Japan Takaaki Nakagami
Honda 1'47.256 0.330
10 Italy Enea Bastianini
Ducati 1'47.276 0.350
11 France Johann Zarco
Ducati 1'47.328 0.402
12 United Kingdom Cal Crutchlow
Yamaha 1'47.353 0.427
13 Portugal Miguel Oliveira
KTM 1'47.389 0.463
14 Spain Alex Rins
Suzuki 1'47.396 0.470
15 Italy Valentino Rossi
Yamaha 1'47.551 0.625
16 Spain Alex Marquez
Honda 1'47.673 0.747
17 Spain Maverick Viñales
Aprilia 1'47.789 0.863
18 South Africa Brad Binder
KTM 1'47.805 0.879
19 Spain Iker Lecuona
KTM 1'47.829 0.903
20 Italy Luca Marini
Ducati 1'48.093 1.167
21 Italy Danilo Petrucci
KTM 1'48.397 1.471
22 United Kingdom Jake Dixon
Yamaha 1'48.422 1.496

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