It was a jubilant start to the day for SKY Racing Team VR46 at Misano’s MotoGP round as home talent Marco Bezzecchi stole the charge from teammate Luca Marini in Saturday’s Free Practice 3.
A quiet start to thesession for Onexox TKKR SAG’s Remy Gardner finally got going in the closing six minutes, stealing third from EG 0,0 Marc VDS’s Sam Lowes, as Tetsuta Nagashima’s Red Bull KTM Ajo rounded out the top five.
Looking to capitalise on Jorge Martin’s absence, due to a positive Covid-19 test, championship leader Marini left no time in improving on his strong home showing, fighting consistently with Lowes and Bezzecchi from the off in the opening 15 minutes.
As the trio repeatedly took turns to lead the field, it was the latter SKY VR46 rider who held fast at the top at the halfway stage, with a 1’36.512, and continued to dominate for the rest of the session.
Continuing his stellar debut season with Petronas SRT, Jake Dixon hit the top five with an impressive 1’36.911 on his seventh lap of the morning.
While continuing to circulate for a further ten, his early best was enough to secure him 10th in the standings overall, once again promoting him in to Q2 for the afternoon.
Having topped Friday’s times and announced his Ducati sign-up for next season, the shine dimmed slightly for Enea Bastianini’s weekend as the Italtrans Racing Team rider concluded the final free practise session in eighth place
A disappointing morning for Aron Canet saw the Oceanica Aspar Team Moto2 rider crash twice. Initially falling foul at turn 16, after heading out for his second run hoping to improve an early top-ten position, a second trip to the gravel in the penultimate minute secured his fate, relegating him to 17th.
A similar run of luck saw +EGO Speed Up’s Fabio Di Giannantonio, Flexbox HP 40’s Hector Garzo and Tennor American Racing’s Joe Roberts all fail to qualify automatically for the afternoon’s final session due to late falls.
The latter’s accident leaving him in the danger zone for the final nail-biting minute before a late charge from Jorge Navarro on the second +EGO Speed Up, to seventh, and Italtrans’ Lorenzo Dalla Porta, to 13th, ultimately relegated the American to 15th. Aspar’s returning Hafizh Syahrin secured the final ‘safe’ spot in 14th.
