Aleix Espargaro finishes FP3 with the best time; Aprilia and Ducati dominated top five

Aleix Espargaro (Aprilia Racing) finished FP3 with the best time of all three practices so far. The Aprilia rider then leads a list of ten riders who managed to qualify directly for Q2, in a session where Jorge Martin (Prima Pramac Racing) and Jack Miller (Ducati Lenovo Team) were still within the top three. It should be noted that among the first five positions are only riders who compete on an Aprilia and a Ducati.

After completing the first two practice sessions, Fabio Quartararo (Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP) entered this FP3 with the best combined lap (FP1+FP2).

After the first 15 minutes of this session, Quartararo remained at the top of the standings with a lap of 1:58.946s and held a lead of 0.154s and another of 0.177s for Joan Mir (Team SUZUKI ECSTAR) and Maverick Viñales (Aprilia racing), respectively. At this stage, with half an hour remaining, the riders returned to their garages before undertaking a second stint of laps.

Back on track, the riders were mostly equipped with soft tires and it was only a matter of time before the Aprilia duo dethroned Quartararo in the combined time standings. Thus, Viñales had a better lap in 1:58.599s while Aleix Espargaró was second with a personal record of 1:58.695s. Quartararo was three tenths away from the top.

Shortly thereafter, Espargaro set a new standard by being four tenths better than his teammate. The #41 had a time of 1:58.254s, but the Spanish duo weren’t alone as Jack Miller placed second with a lap of 1:58.332s.

With ten minutes to go, the combined time table looked like this:

At this stage, Alex Rins was the only rider in the top ten who still hadn’t improved compared to the time he did yesterday. However, he wasn’t the only one as other riders hadn’t been able to improve either.

With five minutes to go before the checkered flag was shown, Zarco (Prima Pramac Racing) had improved (1:58.344s) and placed third behind Espargaro and Miller. Behind the Pramac riders were Viñales and Quartararo with the latter 0.388s off the top.

The orange sectors began to be felt in greater numbers when all the riders were on the track. The soft compound was what was being used mostly in a session with little wind and asphalt with a temperature of 32ºC.

With two minutes to go, the top five was unchanged, but everything could change. Joan Mir moved up to sixth, dethroning Luca Marini (Mooney VR46 Raxing Team), and Zarco was doing a third red sector followed by a first orange sector on a lap that would be ended prematurely due to a crash at Turn 13.

However, the checkered flag was shown on the home straight and Jorge Martín did a lap in 1:58.282s, putting himself in second, 0.028s behind Aleix Espargaró (1:58.254s). As for third place, that was in the hands of Jack Miller (1:58.332, +0.078s) who was second best on a Ducati. It should be noted that Quartararo was sixth fastest and the first not to race on an Aprilia or a Ducati.