Franky Morbidelli mastered the blistering heat of the Qatari afternoon to complete MotoGP FP3 at the head of the times on 1’54.676 pace.
Aleix Espargaro and a striking effort from Luca Marini trailed the Petronas rider for top-three honours while Friday’s top-10 remained safe ahead of tonight’s qualifying battle thanks to the fierce track conditions.
Yesterday’s hero, Jack Miller faced opposing fortunes as Saturday’s MotoGP action got underway with the Ducati finding its limit early at turn 15 on his first hot lap of the afternoon. The Australian was obviously looking to impress, however, setting a new top-speed record at the Losail circuit - with 356.4km/h - in the process.
Franky Morbidelli took charge of proceedings with his fifth lap and a time of 1’55.124 with fellow Yamaha’s Maverick Vińales - minus his crew chief thanks to an inconclusive PCR test - and Fabio Quartararo locking out the top-three behind. Alex Rins and Miguel Oliveira sat best of the rest with yesterday’s 1’53.9 still the gateway into the overall top-10.
20 minutes to go and Yamaha were yet to be challenged. Alex Marquez getting closest as he advanced his LCR Honda to fourth while Quartararo and Morbidelli swapped places for the lead as the intense 49℃ track temperatures hampered progress.
Vińales joined his teammate in vaulting the Petronas rider as the closing 10 minutes began, the trio split by just 0.054 as they circulated on hard tyres with Morbidelli fighting back two laps later.
Danillo Petrucci caused a surprise with just over five minutes left by advancing to fourth as he began to gel with his new Tech3 KTM, Miguel Oliveira joining him, in fifth on the next attempt but it was Luca Marini who looked to claim the headlines, steaming through to second with a ’55 dead on his 14th lap aboard the Avintia.
One minute left and the action continued to ramp up, with Aleix Espargaro matching Morbidelli on high 1’54 pace before the Aprilia rider went down at turn six in dramatic style as he attempted to improve once again.
Morbidelli closed the session on top from Espargaro and Marini, with Rins outmanoeuvring Quartararo and teammate Mir in the top-six. An impressive showing from Takaaki Nakagami moved the LCR rider to seventh ahead of Vińales and Stefan Bradl with Oliveira claiming 10th from fellow KTM mounted Petrucci.
Marquez finished the afternoon session in 12th with rookies Jorge Martin and Enea Bastianini for company while Jack Miller settled for 15th. Valentino Rossi sat 16th at the end of the 45-minute session from Pol Espargaro while Iker Lecuona, Brad Binder, and Lorenzo Savadori headed the Ducati pairing of Pecco Bagnaia and Johann Zarco.
