Ducati’s Pecco Bagnaia continued his dominant form at home by securing FP3 with Mugello’s new all-time lap record, a 1’45.456, ahead of the ItalianGP.
Fabio Quartararo secured second as his teammate Maverick Viñales missed out on Q2 promotion while Brad Binder continued to stun on the KTM, in third.
Having set the second fastest speed on Friday afternoon, Miguel Oliveira was immediately back on form as FP3 got going, the KTM rider heading the standings with a 1’46.331, just 0.184s away from Bagnaia’s overall best, on his third effort with Johann Zarco and Michele Pirro in hot pursuit. Pol Espargaro sat fourth as the session warmed up, the Repsol man so far outside of the combined top-10 - 1’46.593, the current target for promotion.
Zarco took charge with his fifth lap of the morning, advancing the pace on soft front and rear tyres, to within a fraction of the factory Ducati, while Aleix Espargaro joined the fun, in third but it was Binder who was making headlines. Improving on yesterday’s performance and thoroughly utilising the KTM’s new fuel partnership, the South African matched Zarco’s all-time top speed record of 362.4 km/h, on the RC16.
The mid-point of the session saw Joan Mir move to fifth in the session standings, albeit still outside of the overall top-10, ahead of Viñales and team-mate Alex Rins. Takaaki Nakagami advanced to third, with a 1’46.433, leaving the Yamaha man in the drop zone and 10th in the combined times.
Aware of the danger, Viñales was out on a time attack as the final 15-minutes wound down. Finding second in the session and fourth overall, just 0.093s off Zarco’s marker before attempting to improve again next time around before being forced to roll out of the push. His M1 teammate, however, had no such difficulty, Quartararo taking the top-spot with a 1’45.807 before advancing again by a further tenth to sit just 0.2s away from the all-time circuit record.
Luca Marini was on a charge as the rookie swept through to an impressive eighth place, the Italian briefly tasting Q2 contention before the Suzuki’s of Rins and Mir took second and third and the World Champion’s improvement dispatched the Avintia.
Franky Morbidelli once again proved his two-year-old bike, and the slowest of all across the speed traps, was far from done as he stormed to second just 0.16s from his factory cohort, Viñales doing likewise as Yamaha locked out the top-three. Espargaro’s Aprilia split the Suzukis, in fifth with a gaggle of Ducati’s sitting at the edge of the top-10 - Oliveira the only odd duck, in ninth.
Jack Miller was the next to fight as he slammed into second, Bagnaia emulating his team-mate as he stormed to P1 with a 1’45.456 for another lap record. Viñales barrel-ruling through the gravel at turn 12 as the yellow flags came out in the closing minutes.
Binder was back in the fight as the clock counted down, taking third from Miller, as Zarco pushed to fifth and the crashed Yamaha was kicked out of the top-10.
Bagnaia took the session from Quartararo and Binder with the Ducati’s of Miller and Zarco sitting fourth and fifth. Rins claimed sixth from Oliveira and Mir with Pol Espargaro and Morbidelli securing the final top-10 positions. Viñales, Marc Marquez and the elder Espargaro, the first to miss out and face the fight in Q1.
Pirro concluded FP3 in 14th from Nakagami, Marini and Danilo Petrucci with Valentino Rossi once again heading for the opening qualifying battle, from 18th. Lorenzo Savadori, Enea Bastianini, Alex Marquez and Iker Lecuona completed the standings.
