Owlride’s Stefano Nepa controlled the Moto3 pace for Saturday’s FP3, beating out Friday-man Gabriel Rodrigo by 0.04s as the battle for CatalanGP qualifying promotion began.
John McPhee missed out on direct entry to the Q2 shootout after his 1’48.583 final effort placed him 19th in the session times and 21st overall.
A bright and sunny start in Barcelona, with temperatures already nearing yesterday’s best, allowed the Moto3 riders to get straight down to business as the final practice ignited. Gabriel Rodrigo was back in charge with his opening hot-lap before Darryn Binder took over, 1.6s down on the Argentinian’s overall best from Friday’s afternoon, with the two continuing to swap control as the next laps filed in and the pace increased.
Ayumu Sasaki, Pedro Acosta and Romano Fenati sat best of the rest as the morning began, with John McPhee kicking off his Saturday campaign from 15th. Rodrigo remained at the top as he circulated one-second off his benchmark with Stefano Nepa, Andrea Migno, Dennis Foggia, Jaume Masia and Sergio Garcia holding on to the top-10 at the halfway stage.
The second runs began to pick up the pace as Nepa took over the session with a 1’48.106 - less than two-tenths shy of the goal - with Tatsuki Suzuki and Migno running second and third. Garcia was the next to challenge as he found third, Filip Salac joining his Snipers team-mate in the top-five as the provisional pole-man dropped to ninth.
The riders flooded pitlane as the final 10-minutes approached, producing the standard wait as the pack bided their time in their attempt to pick up the perfect slipstream for the ultimate time attack. Yuki Kunii was the first to blink, heading out on track with just over three minutes to go, allowing just one flying lap across the board as the session reached its climax.
The out-laps produced the usual on track lingering before the final strikes fired up, Nepa once again rising to the challenge as he topped the standings with a 1’47.761. Rodrigo claimed second from Suzuki, Deniz Öncü and Fenati with Niccolò Antonelli, Jeremy Alcoba, Foggia, Sasaki and Salac rounding out the top-10. Kaito Toba and Adrian Fernandez sat 11th and 12th with Binder and Izan Guevara securing their Q2 positions thanks to Fridays’ times despite the pair ending FP3 in 21st and 27th respectively. McPhee completed the morning in 19th, eight-tenths off Nepa’s time and 0.17s adrift of the promotion zone, with the Scot looking at a Q1 battle as qualifying kicks off this afternoon.
