Doha MotoGP: Quartararo tops wind-affected FP3, Mir to Q1

The wind had picked up considerably for the start of FP3, with a lot of dust being blown onto the Losail circuit which guaranteed there would be no combined time improvements.

Tech 3 KTM rider Iker Lecuona set the early pace in the session with a 1m58.073s, before Quartararo moved ahead on his Yamaha with a 1m56.912s.

The Frenchman wasn’t happy with the feeling on his M1 on Friday in the lower grip conditions experienced by much of the field because of the humidity.

He continued to better his pace to a 1m56.723s, though Mir would depose him 10 minutes later with a 1m56.450s on his Suzuki.

Mir blamed a strategy gaffe by his Suzuki team on Friday evening in FP2 for stopping him advancing directly into Q2, with the Spaniard forced to go through Q1 for the second week in a row later today.

Mir's time would remain the benchmark until the final three minutes, when teammate Alex Rins moved to the top of the order with a 1m56.347s.

Rins looked set to end FP3 leading a Suzuki 1-2, but Quartararo produced a 1m56.064s at the death to end the session on top – though Ducati’s Jack Miller remains fastest of all on combined times courtesy of his 1m53.145s from FP2.

The Suzuki duo rounded out the top three, Rins safely into Q2 with his FP2 effort while Mir will join all four KTM riders, Honda’s Pol Espargaro and Valentino Rossi in Q1 later this evening.

Danilo Petrucci was fourth on his Tech 3 KTM, but is only 12th on combined times and heads into Q2, while fifth-placed Maverick Vinales on the Yamaha will contest Q2.

Petronas SRT’s Franco Morbidelli, who was sixth in FP3, will join Vinales in Q2, with the remainder of the top 10 in the session – Avintia’s Enea Bastianini, LCR’s Alex Marquez, Rossi and Espargaro – all facing Q1.

Francesco Bagnaia was the only factory Ducati rider to complete some laps in FP3, the Italian 14th, while Miller, Pramac duo Johann Zarco and Jorge Martin and Avintia’s Luca Marini didn’t set times.

All but Marini of that quartet secured their Q2 places on Friday, with Aprilia’s Aleix Espargaro (17th) and Honda’s Stefan Bradl (16th) the last of the direct entrants into the pole shootout session.

Qualifying for the Doha GP gets underway at 8pm local time.

FP3 results:

Cla	#	Rider		Bike	Time	Gap
1	20	Fabio Quartararo		Yamaha	1'56.064
2	42	Alex Rins		Suzuki	1'56.347	0.283
3	36	Joan Mir		Suzuki	1'56.450	0.386
4	9	Danilo Petrucci		KTM	1'56.614	0.550
5	12	Maverick Viñales		Yamaha	1'56.647	0.583
6	21	Franco Morbidelli		Yamaha	1'56.660	0.596
7	23	Enea Bastianini		Ducati	1'56.668	0.604
8	73	Alex Marquez		Honda	1'56.701	0.637
9	46	Valentino Rossi		Yamaha	1'56.718	0.654
10	44	Pol Espargaro		Honda	1'56.789	0.725
11	88	Miguel Oliveira		KTM	1'56.855	0.791
12	33	Brad Binder		KTM	1'56.933	0.869
13	27	Iker Lecuona		KTM	1'56.981	0.917
14	63	Francesco Bagnaia		Ducati	1'57.335	1.271
15	32	Lorenzo Savadori		Aprilia	1'57.378	1.314
16	6	Stefan Bradl		Honda	1'57.450	1.386
17	41	Aleix Espargaro		Aprilia	1'58.633	2.569
18	30	Takaaki Nakagami		Honda	2'03.348	7.284
19	5	Johann Zarco		Ducati
20	10	Luca Marini		Ducati
21	43	Jack Miller		Ducati
22	89	Jorge Martin		Ducati
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