Marc Marquez topped the timesheets in a damp third Motegi MotoGP practice, though Andrea Dovizioso continued to lead the combined standings by virtue of his Friday time. Maverick Vinales missed the Q2 cut.
Despite the track having less water on it than was seen on Friday, no-one was able to improve on their times from second practice for much of the session.
Pramac’s Danilo Petrucci was the early pacesetter on the third practice standings, but was some way off Dovizioso‘s 1m54.877s from Friday on a 1m56.776s.
Championship leader Marc Marquez – who tried a revised aerodynamic fairing on his Honda this morning – soon deposed Petrucci with a 1m56.170s, before Suzuki’s Andrea Iannone took over top spot with a 1m55.797s.
Iannone‘s time was only just over a tenth of a second outside of his Friday best, and this signalled track conditions were improving with a quarter of the session remaining. As a result, a number of riders switched to the Extra-soft rear tyre for a time attack.
Marc VDS Honda’s Tito Rabat was the first improver, with the Spaniard up to 19th from 23rd with a 1m57.247s with 11 minutes left, though was quickly shuffled back by Aprilia’s Sam Lowes.
LCR Honda’s Cal Crutchlow was the first rider inside the top 10 to improve his best pace, the British rider posting a 1m56.149s to remain ninth fastest on the combined times.
Struggling on Friday for pace in the wet conditions, both factory Yamaha riders still languished outside of the Q2 cut-off with six minutes remaining.
Valentino Rossi seemingly found something with his M1 overnight as the Italian jumped up to sixth on the timesheets, before cementing his pace in Q2 with a 1m55.283s to go fifth fastest on the combined times.
Team-mate Maverick Vinales did not fare as well, and will face Q1 after managing only 14th – 1.4s off the pace ahead of Tech3 stand-in Kohta Nozane, who did not improve on his Friday pace.
The top four at the end of second practice – Dovizioso, Marquez, Aleix Espargaro and Jorge Lorenzo – did not better their efforts from Friday, but remain at the head of the combined times, with a 1m55.254s from Marquez putting him top of the third practice standings.
Johann Zarco also did not find time this morning, but heads into qualifying sixth fastest overall from Iannone, Petrucci, Dani Pedrosa and Alex Rins – who will make his first Q2 appearance later today.
Crutchlow was demoted to 11th in the closing stages after a switch to the soft rear tyre did not prove fruitful. He will be joined by KTM’s Pol Espargaro and fellow Briton Lowes.
The satellite Ducati duo of Alvaro Bautista and Scott Redding were unable to make any advances on 16th and 17th after crashing at Turn 11.
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