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Lewis Duncan

Spanish MotoGP: Bagnaia beats Quartararo in FP3; Rins to Q1

The perfect conditions on Saturday morning at Jerez allowed lap time improvements on the combined order to come in almost immediately in the third and final 45-minute practice of the weekend.  

Aprilia’s Aleix Espargaro was the first significant rider to make an improvement on the combined times with a 1m37.732s which put him top in FP3 and ninth overall. 

He improved further to fifth with a 1m37.386s on his next tour, while Suzuki’s Joan Mir would leap up to fourth from 12th on a used soft rear midway through the session with a 1m37.341s.  

When he returned to the circuit with a fresh soft-rear slick with just over 15 minutes remaining, Mir shot up to second with a 1m37.122s.  

But it would be Bagnaia – who topped last November’s test at Jerez outright on the GP22 prototype – that would finally depose Quartararo’s lap from Friday with a 1m36.782s.  

Bagnaia’s lap would come under some threat over the closing stages, but remained intact through to the chequered flag.  

Reigning world champion Quartararo would emerge as his closest challenger, the Yamaha rider getting to within 0.067 seconds on his final lap.  

Takaaki Nakagami led the Honda charge on Saturday morning with the third-best time of the weekend on his LCR-run RC213V.  

His factory Honda counterpart Marc Marquez, who struggled to 19th on Friday having made a major change to his bike he didn’t like, produced a 1m36.925s following Ducati’s Jack Miller late on to leap up to fourth and bag a direct place in Q2.  

There was a moment at the end of the session when Marquez almost ran into the back of Miller, but both emerged without contact – the latter taking the last direct Q2 spot in 10th.  

Maverick Vinales said on Friday he was losing seven tenths of a second when he fitted a fresh soft tyre for a qualifying simulation.  

But the nine-time MotoGP race winner was the strongest Aprilia rider on Saturday morning, the Spaniard – sporting a special Top Gun tribute helmet this weekend – rounding out the top five ahead of Gresini Ducati’s Enea Bastianini.  

The sister Aprilia of Aleix Espargaro was seventh ahead of Suzuki’s Joan Mir and the Pramac Ducati’s Jorge Martin, as Valentino Rossi protege Marco Bezzecchi was denied a place in Q2 late on by just 0.077s on his VR46 Ducati.  

Two riders who starred last weekend in the Portuguese GP will face Q1 later this afternoon, with Pramac’s Johann Zarco – who was second in last week’s race – only 12th at the end of FP3 at Jerez.  

And joining him in the session will be the second Suzuki of Rins, whose final lap of 1m37.293s was only good enough for 13th.  

Both factory KTM riders and Yamaha’s Franco Morbidelli will also face this afternoon’s Q1 session in qualifying.  

MotoGP qualifying for the 2022 Spanish Grand Prix takes place at 2:10pm local time (1:10pm BST). 

Spanish MotoGP - FP3 results:

Cla Rider Bike Time Gap
1 Italy Francesco Bagnaia Ducati 1'36.782  
2 France Fabio Quartararo Yamaha 1'36.849 0.067
3 Japan Takaaki Nakagami Honda 1'36.899 0.117
4 Spain Marc Marquez Honda 1'36.925 0.143
5 Spain Maverick Viñales Aprilia 1'36.975 0.193
6 Italy Enea Bastianini Ducati 1'36.976 0.194
7 Spain Aleix Espargaro Aprilia 1'37.059 0.277
8 Spain Joan Mir Suzuki 1'37.060 0.278
9 Spain Jorge Martin Ducati 1'37.074 0.292
10 Australia Jack Miller Ducati 1'37.124 0.342
11 Italy Marco Bezzecchi Ducati 1'37.201 0.419
12 France Johann Zarco Ducati 1'37.230 0.448
13 Spain Alex Rins Suzuki 1'37.293 0.511
14 South Africa Brad Binder KTM 1'37.314 0.532
15 Italy Franco Morbidelli Yamaha 1'37.315 0.533
16 Portugal Miguel Oliveira KTM 1'37.494 0.712
17 Spain Pol Espargaro Honda 1'37.630 0.848
18 Italy Luca Marini Ducati 1'37.642 0.860
19 Italy Andrea Dovizioso Yamaha 1'37.731 0.949
20 Italy Fabio Di Giannantonio Ducati 1'37.880 1.098
21 Germany Stefan Bradl Honda 1'38.013 1.231
22 Australia Remy Gardner KTM 1'38.095 1.313
23 Italy Lorenzo Savadori Aprilia 1'38.207 1.425
24 Spain Alex Marquez Honda 1'38.237 1.455
25 South Africa Darryn Binder Yamaha 1'38.238 1.456
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