Leopard Honda’s Xavi Artigas left it to the final seconds of FP3 to head the Moto3 standings with a 1’51.428 lap around Misano.
Yuki Kunii secured second in similar style, three-tenths back while Alberto Surra, who had led for the majority of the opening practice, took third.
A damp, dark and foggy Misano World Circuit greeted the MotoGP paddock as Moto3 final practice prepared on Saturday morning. Filip Salac led the tentative start under drizzling conditions, the CarXpert rider running 1’54 pace, one-second ahead of Alberto Surra in second before the Rivacold Snipers man took charge with a 1’53 effort. KTM’s shining star Pedro Acosta was the next to match the pace, with Ayumu Sasaki narrowly behind, in third, on the Tech3 machine.
The local rider, and newly selected VR46 academy rider continued to head the times as the session continued, setting the first 1’52 lap before refining it on his fifth attempt with a 1’52.107 for the fastest time of the weekend so far.
John McPhee was back in action aboard the Petronas Sprinta Honda after sitting out of Friday due to illness, albeit from 23rd as he began to refamiliarise himself with the Adriatic layout while teammate Darryn Binder sat sixth after 15 minutes on track.
BOE Owlride’s Riccardo Rossi became the first victim of the conditions, at turn 14 while Surra and Salac continued to shine out front. The pair setting near identical 1’51.7 pace, just 0.006s apart at the halfway stage.
Friday hero Andrea Migno suffered a late-session crash at turn eight with eighth minutes to go, with the second Snipers rider so far unable to improve on his FP1 lap and sitting 12th in the overall standings.
The rain increased as FP3 neared its conclusion, Salac caught out at the first corner with Kaito Toba doing likewise at turn 10 moments later. The former safely inside the Q2 promotion zone with the latter adrift in 19th. Sparks flying from Tatsuki Suzuki’s SIC58 Honda and bringing out the black and orange flag with three minutes left on the clock.
The penultimate minute saw turn 15 claim Daniel Holgado, the Tech3 KTM stand-in running just inside the Q2 positions, in 13th. Xavier Artigas storming to the top with his final effort as the flag dropped thanks to a 1’51.428 followed closely by Yuki Kunii in his slipstream, to claim second.
Surra consolidated third from Salac and Sasaki with Dennis Foggia, Adrian Fernandez, Acosta, Stefano Nepa and Binder completing the top 10. Lorenzo Fellon, Izan Guevara, Andi Farid Izdihar and Holgado claimed the final promotion positions with Jaume Masia missing out by a mere 0.007s. McPhee circulated in 26th as he battled with the flu with a surprising performance from Romano Fenati one place behind.
