Monster Yamaha’s Maverick Vinales marmalised the Jerez MotoGP outright lap record in free practice three, setting a 1’36.584 in a session which saw nine riders including rookie Brad Binder under the 1’37s barrier.
Vinales watched as last weekend’s winner and Yamaha stablemate Fabio Quartararo break his own lap record with a 1’36.643 and then strapped on soft Michelins all round to lower it even further and set a new target for qualifying this afternoon.
At the other end of the timesheets, injured Marc Marquez finished an incredible 1.2s off the pace in 20th and has already stated he will continue into FP4 and qualifying.
Less than half a second covered the top ten riders of which saw Jack Miller leap into third place with his final lap of 1’36.710 - also under Quartararo’s lap record from last weekend - set on softs all round.
Taka Nakagami proved yesterday’s session-topping time was no fluke by putting his Idemitsu Honda in fourth place 0.258s off the pace.
Pecco Bagnaia was the second Ducati home just 0.005s behind Nakagami in fifth place and one ahead of works Bologna pilot Danilo Petrucci who pulled a 1’36.937 out of nowhere to claim sixth place.
KTM’s Binder got a deserved round of applause from his team after putting in a 1’36.938 for seventh place. The rookie has only competed in one MotoGP race so far and finished ahead of Valentino Rossi in eighth.
Pol Espargaro made it two works RC16s in the top ten but he finished behind his rookie team-mate with Joan Mir squeaking the final automatic qualifying spot in tenth. Injured team-mate Alex Rins sat out FP3 but will take part in the fourth session.
Aleix Espargaro’s hopes of a Q2 spot disappeared with two crashes but he was unhurt, finishing in 11th but only 0.017s shy of a Q2 spot while Franco Morbidelli will be disappointed with 12th.
Miguel Oliveira took 13th place with Andrea Dovizioso having a nightmare in 14th place and missing Q2. Johann Zarco completed the top 15.
Cal Crutchlow gritted his teeth for 17th place behind Alex Marquez with Bradley Smith in 21st.
