Johann Zarco was the fastest in free practice in Austria

Johann Zarco continued at his level in Austria without opponents and his time in FP1 was enough to keep him at the top, in FP3 where Francesco Bagnaia was the fastest.

The third session had started and the weather conditions were favorable for the riders for the time being, but not all looked like it on their motorcycles.

Jorge Martín was one of the first to climb to the top of the timesheet but was later beaten by Fabio Quartararo, but with times still among yesterday’s best for the time being. In this initial phase, some drivers in FP3 had not yet got on their bikes.

Within ten minutes of the session, after Enea Bastianini’s fall, the yellow flag was shown without any problems for the driver.

Shortly afterwards, Zarco climbed to the top of the times with a lap of 1: 23.484 seconds, still below yesterday’s best time of 1: 22.827, which she also had in her possession.

At this point in the session, the top ten were already with all the drivers on the track.

Drivers appeared to be testing different solutions on the tires as the weather forecast indicated the possibility of rain during RP4.

Álex Rins, temporarily qualified for Q2, meanwhile tried to improve his time and used Suzuki’s new holeshot device:

Another chance to see @suzukimotogp’s rear height stabilizer in action! @ Rins42 to put it to good use! # AustrianGP pic.twitter.com/vfBo9oNJCu

– MotoGP (@MotoGP) August 14, 2021

With 18 minutes left in the session, only Zarco, Quartararo and Martín were on the track, and the Yamaha French climbed to the top of the FP3 timesheet by completing a lap in 1: 22.975 s. The French couple were the only one with a time under 23 seconds.

Both French in the 1:22! @ FabioQ20 is now only a tenth behind his compatriot! # AustrianGP pic.twitter.com/VK1GnraZfb

– MotoGP (@MotoGP) August 14, 2021

The meeting was entering a crucial phase and the table could change. Zarco was the first, and in counterpoint was Aleix Espargaró. Only Zarco, Rins, A. Espargaró, A. Márquez and Valentino Rossi had not improved their records from yesterday.

And he was precisely the oldest of the Espargaró brothers, improving his time and improving to third place on the combined timesheet: 1: 23.222s, and A. Marquez did the same and temporarily stepped into Q2, knocking out Rins.

Martín from pole position finished eighth, initially without a KTM rider in Q2: Brad Binder was closest with twelfth time.

Quartararo improved his time slightly to 1: 22.968s and was thus the top ten with the provisionally qualified drivers at the moment:

Jack Miller made the ninth time shortly afterwards and went into Q2, A. Máquez was out, but there was still time to continue testing to secure a place.

Francesco Bagnaia with red sectors threatened the first place, but had to be satisfied with the second with 0.047 seconds ahead of Zarco.

With a couple of drivers on their last attempt, Martin was also looking for a place in Q2 but crashed at Turn 10 and the yellow flag was shown and the times were canceled.

With this, Zarco confirmed the best time in the overall ranking of the combined training times. Bagnaia was the fastest in FP3.