Bagnaia fastest in the third practice session of Spanish MotoGP

Francesco Bagnaia took the lead in FP3 ahead of Friday’s fastest man Fabio Quartararo, with Alex Rins missing the top 10.

Francesco Bagnaia lead Fabio Quartararo in Jerez MotoGP FP3 by just 0.006s, as Honda’s Stefan Bradl, Alex Marquez, and Pol Espargaro all suffered late crashes.

As a result of the cool circumstances on Saturday morning compared to Friday afternoon’s FP2 test, Aleix Espargaro’s Aprilia moved from 13th overall in the combined rankings to fifth early in the session.

However, his time was quickly eclipsed by Suzuki’s Joan Mir, who moved into the overall top ten with a time of 1:37.122s – however his gambit would be called into question in the closing 15 minutes as the field battled for one of the ten automatic pole shootout positions.

Bagnaia seized the opportunity to set the weekend’s first sub-1:37 time, his 1:36.782s leaving him barely two-tenths of a second below the Jerez venue’s outright two-wheeled lap record.

Despite the fact that the entire field improved their times, the Ducati rider’s time would remain unassailable, with Quartararo coming within 0.006s of dethroning the 2021 MotoGP vice-champion despite having already aborted his first two tries.

Takaaki Nakagami nabbed the third quickest time on his LCR Honda, ahead of factory Honda rider Marc Marquez, who benefited from a helpful tow from Jack Miller after struggling to even break the top ten on his own.

Maverick Vinales’ Aprilia finished fifth, ahead of Enea Bastianini and teammate Aleix Espargaro, with Mir down to eighth at the end of the session.

Jorge Martin squeaked into automatic Q2 ahead of Miller in the last moments, with VR46 rookie Marco Bezzecchi missing out on a chance to bypass Q1, as did Johann Zarco’s second Pramac Ducati, which finished 12th.

Alex Rins, the joint series leader, too had a poor one-lap effort on his way to 13th overall, which means he’ll have to fight for one of the two remaining pole shootout slots in the first leg of qualifying.

KTM battled in dry conditions once again, with Brad Binder finishing 14th ahead of teammate Miguel Oliveira in 16th, and Pol Espargaro finishing 17th after crashing at Turn 6 on his penultimate attempt.

Alex Marquez crashed at Turn 13 on his route to 22nd overall, slightly behind wild-carding Honda test rider Stefan Bradl, who also crashed at the same corner while attempting to catch Marc.

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