Yamaha’s Maverick Vinales heads into tomorrow’s first qualifying session of the season as the man to beat after topping the final free practice in Qatar.
The Spanish rider failed to improve on his Thursday effort of 1m54.316s, though still shot to the top of the FP3 timesheets with a last-gasp lap of 1m54.834s, edging Suzuki’s Andrea Iannone by just a few hundredths.
The Italian rider has been struggling all weekend to get comfortable on the GSX-RR, and with the final minutes of the session quickly counting down he was languishing down in 17th.
Out of nowhere, however, Iannone blasted across the line right at the death with a 1m54.848s to put him second on the combined standings.
Ironically, this saw the man who replaces him at Ducati, Jorge Lorenzo, dropped out of the top 10. The six-times Qatar winner struggled all session on his Desmosedici GP17, and could only manage the 12th fastest time, meaning he must contest the first part of qualifying on his Ducati debut.
Honda’s Marc Marquez hasn’t had the best of days on his RC213V, but his time from yesterday’s session kept him third. Tech 3 Yamaha’s Johann Zarco impressed once again and goes straight through to QP2 on his MotoGP debut, along with team-mate Jonas Folger, who was eighth at the end of FP3 on the combined standings.
Andrea Dovizioso was top Ducati rider, though some seven tenths off the pace in fifth and only a few hundredths quicker than Pramac’s Scott Redding, who endured an eventful session.
The British rider was lucky to escape injury when his left fairing panel broke off whilst he was thundering down the pit straight 10 minutes in. He also suffered a crash in the closing minutes at Turn 2.
Redding’s compatriot Cal Crutchlow was lucky to remain inside the top 10 after joining him in the Turn 2 gravel trap just seconds later.
The LCR rider ended the session with a 1m55.211s in ninth, two tenths faster than Yamaha’s Valentino Rossi in 10th, who was lucky to get back out on track for a time attack following a late technical drama.
Danilo Petrucci added to the Pramac team’s evening workload, after the Italian chucked his GP17 at the scenery of T10 early in the session.
He ended the night 11th as a result and will join Lorenzo in QP2, along with Aspar Ducati’s Alvaro Bautista and a particularly determined looking Aleix Espargaro on the Aprilia.
Unsurprisingly, the KTM duo of Pol Espargaro and Bradley Smith brought up the rear of the field, but did manage to cut their deficit to the leaders to an encouraging 2.8s on the combined times.
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