FP3 – One thousandth between Bagnaia and Quartararo! – Motorsport.com France

With 17 ° C in the air and 20 ° C on the ground, temperatures were comparable to yesterday morning when MotoGP took to the track in Portimão for the third free practice session of the Algarve Grand Prix. The wind, which the Ducati riders hoped to see weaken, was still there, however.

Nevertheless, Pecco Bagnaia was the first to turn in 1’40, being at the very start of the session a second and a half behind yesterday’s best time, achieved in more favorable conditions in the afternoon. Fabio Quartararo had to wait for his fifth lap to enter this window, but a few minutes later, it was the Frenchman who managed to dislodge Bagnaia from the top of the standings, the two men standing in a tenth and a half in small 1 ‘ 40. Their performance had then reached a level comparable to that of yesterday morning.

Third at this stage of the session, Jorge Martín who quickly confirmed the good pace taken on Friday afternoon after a cautious morning during which he wished regain your marks with the track which resulted in a violent accident seven months ago. But this start of the session only allowed the last classified drivers to improve their performance on Friday, in this case Valentino rossi, Andrea Dovizioso and Iker Lecuona.

Mid-session marked the joint progress of the two Suzuki riders, Joan mir stepping between Quartararo and Bagnaia posting what was then his best time since the start of the weekend, while Álex Rins climbed ahead of Martín. The real surprise, however, came from Luca Marini, who managed to complete an impressive lap to move to provisional fourth place in this session, however only having 14th place in the combined standings as a value.

All eyes on the top 10 combined

In the wake of his progress, Mir took advantage of his two soft tires to take control of the session 20 minutes from the end. The Suzuki rider posted a time of 1’39 “586, the first under 1’40 this morning. In the combined standings, this allowed him to climb a notch to third place. Likewise, Takaaki Nakagami won two places in the combined standings by moving to second place in these FP3s at the start of the last quarter of an hour.

It was this ranking, established on the basis of the first three sessions, that would focus attention in the final minutes, since being part of the ten fastest men means qualifying directly for Q2. And we had to wait for the last eight minutes to see the top 10 change, with first the improvement of Franco Morbidelli, which was excluded yesterday. Rins, who occupied a dangerous tenth place on Friday, had just taken shelter and it is Aleix Espargaró which slipped at that moment to 11th place in the combined standings.

Already the leader, Quartararo struck a blow by closing a lap in 1’39 “206, increasing his lead over Bagnaia to 0” 316. But the Ducati rider had not said his last word and he went looking for a new reference time… with four thousandths better than the Frenchman! This gap would be reduced before the checkered flag but a small thousandth would still resist between the two men, to the advantage of Bagnaia.

Behind them, the positions have continued to evolve over the past few minutes. Already under the spotlight previously, Marini achieved his goal by propelling himself to provisional fourth in the combined classification! That took Nakagami out of the comfort zone and put Zarco in a perilous tenth place. His team-mate, Jorge Martín, was quick to climb into the top 10 and knock the Frenchman out of it. Last man in the top 10 not to have improved his time yesterday, Pol Espargaró succeeded in the last minute of the session to finally take shelter.

Johann zarco, who did not manage to do better than yesterday, fails in 13th place in the combined classification and will therefore have to go through Q1 this afternoon, as does Takaaki Nakagami who only misses the direct qualification for five thousandths . All the KTMs are also outside the top 10, despite good progress from Lecuona at the end of the session. And we will also mention Aleix Espargaró, eighth yesterday, and who fell to 16th place.

Algarve GP – Free Practice 3