What went down in third Mugello MotoGP practice

Ducati MotoGP rider Francesco Bagnaia sets the pace in the third Italian Grand Prix practice at Mugello.

key moments:

> Six Ducatis in top seven

> Quartararo sneaks into top 10

> Miller, Marquez and Suzuki duo heading to Q1

The first half of the session was largely dominated by various Ducati-related dramas, with a mechanical problem and three separate crashes complicating life for the Bologna marque’s roster.

A fast off at Correntaio for @PeccoBagnaia!

The Italian is the 4th Ducati rider to have a problem in FP3 but thankfully the Italian is able to walk away! #MotoGP | #ItalianGP pic.twitter.com/2F7fHIv3Wo

— MotoGP (@MotoGP) May 28, 2022

Shortly after Jack Miller had to ride off at Arrabbiata 1 with his Desmosedici apparently failing on him, works team-mate Bagnaia went down at speed at Correntaio, his bike ending up lodged in the tire wall after cartwheeling through the gravel.

Drama for two rookies into San Donato! @Marco12_B and @FabioDiggia49 having some issues early in FP3! #MotoGP | #ItalianGP pic.twitter.com/M7n9WMYO7M

— MotoGP (@MotoGP) May 28, 2022

Either side of that there were crashes for Marco Bezzecchi, who ran into the gravel and tipped off at virtually no speed, and Jorge Martin, who went down on the outside of Scarperia.

More disaster for Ducati! @88jorgemartin slides off at Scarperia! #MotoGP | #ItalianGP pic.twitter.com/t2X7cicPFM

— MotoGP (@MotoGP) May 28, 2022

Soon after returning from his crash, Bagnaia used a fresh soft rear to set the best time of the weekend by far, a 1m45.393s, leaving him nearly three quarters of a second clear in the FP3 timesheets.

The gap was ultimately whittled down to a 0.276s gap by Aprilia’s Aleix Espargaro, who was the sole non-Ducati rider in the top seven.

The rest of that top seven was made up by Luca Marini (VR46), Johann Zarco (Pramac), Bezzecchi (VR46), Enea Bastianini (Gresini) and Martin (Pramac).

Two Hondas also booked spots in Q2, with Pol Espargaro making use of a tow from brother Aleix and LCR Honda’s Takaaki Nakagami also getting in.

The final automatic Q2 spot was occupied by Yamaha’s championship leader Fabio Quartararo, who outpaced Maverick Vinales (Aprilia) by just 0.028s.

After a difficult Friday, both Suzuki riders Alex Rins and Joan Mir had to settle for Q1, as did Marc Marquez, who ended up only 21st.

The biggest surprise name in Q1, however, was Miller, who had been third-fastest after Friday but only found around a tenth and a half in FP3.

Going, going, gone! @Bestia23 almost saves this slide! #MotoGP | #ItalianGP pic.twitter.com/u328JQYYQu

— MotoGP (@MotoGP) May 28, 2022

There were two late crashes in the session, with Bastianini dropping his pace-liveried Ducati and RNF Yamaha rookie Darryn Binder then falling off soon after.

Practice 3 results

position	Surname	team	bike	Gap Next	gap leader	best time
1	Francesco Bagnaia	Ducati Lenovo team	Ducati			1m45.393s
2	Aleix Espargaro	Aprilia Racing	Aprilia	+0.276s	+0.276s	1m45.669s
3	Luca Marini	Mooney VR46 Racing Team	Ducati	+0.093s	+0.369s	1m45.762s
4	Johann Zarco	Pramac Racing	Ducati	+0.005s	+0.374s	1m45.767s
5	Marco Bezzecchi	Mooney VR46 Racing Team	Ducati	+0.086s	+0.46s	1m45.853s
6	Enea Bastianini	Gresini Racing MotoGP	Ducati	+0.007s	+0.467s	1m45.86s
7	Jorge Martin	Pramac Racing	Ducati	+0.019s	+0.486s	1m45.879s
8th	Pol Espargaro	Repsol Honda Team	Honda	+0.001s	+0.487s	1m45.88s
9	Takaaki Nakagami	LCR Honda IDEMITSU	Honda	+0.119s	+0.606s	1m45.999s
10	Fabio Quartararo	Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP	Yamaha	+0.033s	+0.639s	1m46.032s
11	Maverick Vinales	Aprilia Racing	Aprilia	+0.028s	+0.667s	1m46.06s
12	Alex Rins	Team SUZUKI ECSTAR	Suzuki	+0.004s	+0.671s	1m46.064s
13	Fabio Di Giannantonio	Gresini Racing MotoGP	Ducati	+0.052s	+0.723s	1m46.116s
14	Miguel Oliveira	Red Bull KTM Factory Racing	KTM	+0.038s	+0.761s	1m46.154s
15	Jack Miller	Ducati Lenovo team	Ducati	+0.015s	+0.776s	1m46.169s
16	Joan Mir	Team SUZUKI ECSTAR	Suzuki	+0.168s	+0.944s	1m46.337s
17	Alex Marquez	LCR Honda Castrol	Honda	+0.026s	+0.97s	1m46.363s
18	Franco Morbidelli	Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP	Yamaha	+0.12s	+1.09s	1m46.483s
19	Brad Binder	Red Bull KTM Factory Racing	KTM	+0.017s	+1.107s	1m46.5s
20	Michele Pirro	Austrian Junior Cup	Ducati	+0.057s	+1.164s	1m46.557s
21	Marc Marquez	Repsol Honda Team	Honda	+0.02s	+1.184s	1m46.577s
22	Raúl Fernández	Tech3 KTM Factory Racing	KTM	+0.162s	+1.346s	1m46.739s
23	Remy Gardner	Tech3 KTM Factory Racing	KTM	+0.2s	+1.546s	1m46.939s
24	Darryn Binder	WithU Yamaha RNF MotoGP Team	Yamaha	+0.024s	+1.57s	1m46.963s
25	Andrea Dovizioso	WithU Yamaha RNF MotoGP Team	Yamaha	+0.06s	+1.63s	1m47.023s
26	Lorenzo Savadori	Aprilia Racing	Aprilia	+0.023s	+1.653s	1m47.046s

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