Moto3 Argentina FP3: Fabio di Giannantonio the most skillful on a greasy track

Happy birthday to Kaito Toba who celebrates his 18th birthday today. He was born on April 7, 2000 in Fukuoka.

Due to the presence of clouds and less than optimistic local weather, the third free practice session began with a track that was around 80% wet, a temperature of 18,3° for the air and 19° for the track. . There was very little wind, so the clouds were likely to stay around for a while. The best time achieved the day before was 1'50.397 by Enea Bastianini on her Leopard Racing Honda. The surface of the circuit having been partly improved since last year, with the removal of certain bumps, a notable progress could be envisaged in terms of the time.

The Hondas had dominated the day on Friday with the three machines of Bastianini, his teammate Lorenzo Dalla Porta and Tony Arbolino (Marinelli Snipers Team) who preceded the KTM of Livio Loi (Reale Avintia Academy).

#ArgentinaGP Moto3	2017	2018
FP1	1'51.559 Joan Mir	1'52.190 Marco Bezzecchi
FP2	1'50.248 Joan Mir	1'50.397 Enea Bastianini
FP3	1'49.792 Nicolo Bulega	2'00.315 Fabio di Giannantonio
Qualification	1'49.094 John McPhee
Warm Up	1'50.453 John McPhee
Course	Mir, McPhee, Martin
All time lap record	1'48.461 Miguel Oliveira 2015

Jorge Martín's recent victory at Losail was Honda's 13th in a row in the Moto3 category. The last three Moto3 races held in Argentina have been won by a Honda rider. Romano Fenati is the only rider to have won with KTM on this track, in 2014.

The times were reasonable at the start of the session, with for example Gabriel Rodrigo (RBA BOE Skull Rider) fastest in 2'05, so that the drivers could familiarize themselves with the wet surface. It may rain on Sunday.

Lets get this Saturday started!

Tricky conditions greet the # Moto3 field after rain overnight 😕#ArgentinaGP pic.twitter.com/eZiDuhOmcA

- MotoGP @ 🏁 (@MotoGP) April 7, 2018

Fabio di Giannantonio (Del Conca Gresini) took the lead in 2'02.973, then Marco Bezzecchi (PruestlGP) took over in 2'02.539. Di Giannantonio accelerated in 2'01.847. Adam Norrodin (Petronas Sprinta Racing) moved into second, six hundredths behind.

As the track continued to dry, Fabio di Giannantonio set a time of 2'00.746, and it wouldn't be long before we went under two minutes. However, the second Gabriel Rodrigo was almost a second away (0.929) and the third Aron Canet (Estrella Galicia 0,0) at 1.038. The track was drying extremely slowly due to the low temperature and lack of wind. Some parts of the route were dry, nothing more.

Dennis Foggia (Sky Racing Team VR46) moved into second position in 2'01.039, 0.804 behind di Giannantonio. It was all the better as Foggia, a rookie from CEV, had never driven at Termas de Rio Hondo. He was overtaken by another rookie, Antonio Lopez, teammate of Aron Canet.

Niccolo Antonelli (SIC58 Squadra Corse) fell without seriousness 4 minutes from the checkered flag in turn 13. At the end of the session, Fabio di Giannantonio improved to 2'00.315 and was ahead of Enea Bastianini, Marco Bezzecchi, Tatsuki Suzuki, Aron Canet and Gabriel Rodrigo.

# Moto3 FP3 🏁

@FabioDiggia21 leads an Italian trio in FP3, with @eneabastianini and @ Marco12_B rounding out the top three 🇮🇹#ArgentinaGP pic.twitter.com/ErBMA5xAjC

- MotoGP @ 🏁 (@MotoGP) April 7, 2018

Results of the third free practice session :

1 21 Fabio DI GIANNANTONIO ITA Del Conca Gresini Moto3 HONDA 2'00.315 13 14 218.2
2 33 Enea BASTIANINI ITA Leopard Racing HONDA 2'00.482 12 12 0.167 0.167 221.0
3 12 Marco BEZZECCHI ITA Redox PruestelGP KTM 2'00.698 15 16 0.383 0.216 223.6
4 24 Tatsuki SUZUKI JPN SIC58 Squadra Corse HONDA 2'00.988 12 14 0.673 0.290 218.1
5 44 Aron CANET SPA Estrella Galicia 0,0 HONDA 2'01.012 14 14 0.697 0.024 220.4
6 19 Gabriel RODRIGO ARG RBA BOE Skull Rider KTM 2'01.094 15 16 0.779 0.082 220.2
7 16 Andrea MIGNO ITA Angel Nieto Team Moto3 KTM 2'01.211 16 16 0.896 0.117 222.1
8 88 Jorge MARTIN SPA Del Conca Gresini Moto3 HONDA 2'01.244 11 14 0.929 0.033 218.1
9 7 Adam NORRODIN MAL Petronas Sprinta Racing HONDA 2'01.332 11 13 1.017 0.088 219.9
10 10 Dennis FOGGIA ITA SKY Racing Team VR46 KTM 2'01.414 16 17 1.099 0.082 219.6
11 72 Alonso LOPEZ SPA Estrella Galicia 0,0 HONDA 2'01.448 13 16 1.133 0.034 217.8
12 48 Lorenzo DALLA PORTA ITA Leopard Racing HONDA 2'01.469 13 16 1.154 0.021 218.7
13 41 Nakarin ATIRATPHUVAP THA Honda Team Asia HONDA 2'01.561 17 18 1.246 0.092 219.2
14 40 Darryn BINDER RSA Red Bull KTM Ajo KTM 2'01.892 19 19 1.577 0.331 219.9
15 27 Kaito TOBA JPN Honda Team Asia HONDA 2'01.977 15 17 1.662 0.085 219.3
16 84 Jakub KORNFEIL CZE Redox PruestelGP KTM 2'02.004 13 15 1.689 0.027 220.9
17 8 Nicolo BULEGA ITA SKY Racing Team VR46 KTM 2'02.027 14 16 1.712 0.023 216.9
18 11 Livio LOI BEL Reale Avintia Academy KTM 2'02.041 14 14 1.726 0.014 218.8
19 22 Kazuki MASAKI JPN RBA BOE Skull Rider KTM 2'02.081 14 14 1.766 0.040 221.7
20 23 Niccolò ANTONELLI ITA SIC58 Squadra Corse HONDA 2'02.124 12 12 1.809 0.043 219.1
21 42 Marcos RAMIREZ SPA Bester Capital Dubai KTM 2'02.136 12 14 1.821 0.012 217.0
22 65 Philipp OETTL GER Sudmetal Schedl GP Racing KTM 2'02.165 8 12 1.850 0.029 220.6
23 5 Jaume MASIA SPA Bester Capital Dubai KTM 2'02.425 10 15 2.110 0.260 218.8
24 75 Albert ARENAS SPA Angel Nieto Team Moto3 KTM 2'02.742 10 12 2.427 0.317 220.1
25 17 John MCPHEE GBR CIP – Green Power KTM 2'02.962 7 8 2.647 0.220 224.0
26 71 Ayumu SASAKI JPN Petronas Sprinta Racing HONDA 2'03.063 11 12 2.748 0.101 223.9
27 14 Tony ARBOLINO ITA Marinelli Snipers Team HONDA 2'04.047 13 15 3.732 0.984 223.3
28 76 Makar YURCHENKO KAZ CIP – Green Power KTM 2'04.426 10 10 4.111 0.379 214.3