Ducati’s Pecco Bagnaia held off late season rival Fabio Quartararo by the tiniest of margins in Saturday’s FP3 on the Algarve.
The duelling duo were separated by just 0.001s at the flag with 1’39.202 the final best. Suzuki’s Joan Mir another two-hundredths back, for third, in a painstakingly close third practice at Portimao.
FP3 action opened with Bagnaia out front before Yamaha’s Franky Morbidelli took charge. The Espargaro brothers following for second and third as Pol got the better of his elder sibling with Ecstar’s Mir narrowly behind.
Bagnaia was back to head the times with his fourth effort of the morning, a 1’40.369. The early pace just a second adrift of Friday’s best after only 10 minutes on track. Quartararo joined the front runners with his fifth lap, sitting second ahead of his teammate before Jorge Martin demoted the Monster Energy pair next time around.
Brad Binder, Valentino Rossi and Enea Bastianini completed the morning’s top 10 as the final riders circulating on 1’40 pace with Iker Lecuona and Andrea Dovizioso close behind.
Jack Miller entered the mix, in seventh, after as many laps, while his teammate was demoted at the top by the new world champion.
The midsession saw Luca Marini run fifth and on equal pace to his VR46 Academy cohort Morbidelli as Alex Rins rose to third. Lecuona bolstered his penultimate weekend as a MotoGP rider in eighth with the Tech3 rider the first to improve on Friday’s overall times, albeit only registering 18th.
Mir was the first to set a 1’39 on Saturday, to head the session and boost his position to third in the combined times. His Suzuki teammate holding the Q2 gateway with a 1’40.176 and 20 minutes to run.
Takaaki Nakagami sat on the bubble of 1’40 at two-thirds distance, the LCR Idemitsu rider claiming second from the Yamaha man with the wind preventing all but the finest of improvements across the board.
The closing 10 minutes found a double team lockout at the head of the times as Rins joined his Suzuki colleague in second with Alex Marquez heading Nakagami in third and fourth. The factory Yamaha’s spoiling the pattern as Quartararo hit the top and Morbidelli struck for third - and fourth overall.
The MotoGP champ moved the goalposts once again as he improved on his commanding pace, 1’39.206 now the benchmark with the two LCR riders sitting on the edge of Q2 contention.
Five to go and it was Bagnaia’s time to shine, Marini trailing his compatriot as the Italian pair claimed first and fourth respectively, with the number 63 advancing the pace by a mere 0.004s.
The top three were covered by just two-hundredths of a second with three minutes left to play as Mir fine-tuned his time once again. Martin bettering Rins for sixth and seventh before Miller arrived to claim fourth.
Bastianini and Johan Zarco dropped out of the top 10 as the session counted down, final efforts promoting Marquez up to fifth with Espargaro following for seventh on the Repsol Honda.
Four-tenths covered the entirety of the Q2 promotion zone at the flag with Bagnaia and Quartararo split by a single millisecond. Nakagami missing out by a similarly minuscule margin as the Japanese rider was denied direct entry to the final shootout by 0.005s.
