Fabio Di Giannantonio continued his dominance in Alcañiz this morning by breaking the Moto2 lap-record to claim the fastest time of the session, and overall standings, ahead of the Aragon GP qualifying later today.
Britain’s Sam Lowes put in another strong performance to command the majority of proceedings before a fall in the closing minutes prevented further progress leaving the Marc VDS rider second while Jake Dixon’s late-pace saw him advance to ninth overall, the pair both securing automatic qualification through to Q2.
The final Moto2 free practice got off to a flying start for Lowes as the Brit stormed straight to the top of the standings with an impressive pace from the off, circulating in the mid 1’52’s and already faster than Friday’s overall best by just his third lap on track. Hector Garzo, Joe Roberts and Friday hero, Di Giannantonio, held the early top-four positions before Marco Bezzecchi and Bo Bendsneyder joined the battle on their fifth attempts.
A tentative start for Dixon saw the Petronas rider down in 19th as he worked to find a better setting after Friday’s difficulties, his early pace leaving him 1.7s off his compatriot’s time and outside of the Q2 cutoff but improvements in the mid-session allowed him to quietly chip away as he advanced to 15th by the halfway point.
Back at the front Lowes continued to shift the benchmark with a 1’52.243 set on his eighth lap, leaving Bezzecchi, the best of the rest, 0.6s behind as the field returned to the pits for new Dunlop tyres. Heading out, Nicolo Bulega suffered the fate of many so far this weekend as his Gresini machine found the gravel at turn two and ended his session early.
As the clock ticked down the battle for position heated up, Remy Gardner, Augusto Fernandez and Jorge Navaro joining the front runners as the trio demoted Bezzecchi to fifth with a heroic performance from Xavi Vierge - the Spaniard bravely riding with two fractured feet - sitting his Petronas tentatively on the edge of the top-14.
Three minutes to go saw disaster for Lowes at turn 14 while Di Giannantonio took the lead in the times, the frustrated Brit down but guaranteed of his Q2 advancement thanks to his earlier blistering pace. A penultimate lap for Dixon saw him move firmly into contention in eighth as his teammate lost out at the flag, dropping to 16th.
Di Giannantonio claimed the FP3 honours with the fastest ever Moto2 time around the 5km Motorland track - a 1’52.171 - from Lowes and Gardner with Fernandez, Roberts, Navarro and Marcos Ramirez finishing ahead of Dixon. Bezzecchi’s Friday time was enough to demote the Petronas rider one position in the overall standings as Enea Bastianini rounded out the top-10 with Bendsneyder, Luca Marini, Garzo and Edgar Pons claiming the final promotion spots into Q2.
