MotoGP Spain FP3 LIVE: Francesco Bagnaia, for 6 thousandths!

Curiously, while the MotoGP Spanish Grand Prix at Jerez benefited from pristine Andalusian skies and asphalt temperatures rising to over 40° in the afternoon, the track at the Jerez-Angel circuit Nieto experienced recurring issues with moisture patches on his first day. Sort of occasional resurgences, like those that hit the headlines during the first years of the Sepang circuit in Malaysia, due to the rain that fell the days before.

Several pilots have complained about it, like fabio quartararo, the leader of the first day: “In FP2 there were still patches at turn eight and that's not a good place to have them, so I hope that if tomorrow it's not really dry someone will actually go and do something about it. dry, because to be honest it's a place that is rather dangerous. »

And that’s exactly what the organizers did, using blowers until late at night! The situation seems to have returned to normal this morning and, logically, the times should go down accordingly, as they have just done in Moto3.

The last five minutes of FP2 saw a triptych of Ducati take the best of Takaaki Nakagami and it took numerous and regular attempts to Fabio Quartararo to overcome everyone...

For the moment, the ten pre-qualified for Q2 are therefore named Fabio Quartararo, Enea Bastianini, Francesco Bagnaia, Jorge Martin, Takaaki Nakagami, Brad Binder, Pol Espargaro, Alex Rins, Maverick Vinales and Jack Miller and all stand within 7 tenths.

While waiting to discover more, as the 25 drivers prepare for this third 45-minute free practice session, under a clear Andalusian sky and with temperatures of 20° in the air and 23° on the ground, let's enjoy these few live moments thanks to the official website MotoGP.com :

Here are the past references to keep in mind:

MotoGP ™	2021	2022
FP1	1'38.013 Brad Binder (see here)	1'38.194 Joan Mir (See here)
FP2	1'37.209 Francesco Bagnaia (see here)	1'37.071 Fabio Quartararo (See here)
FP3	1'36.985 Takaaki Nakagami (see here)	1'36.782 Francesco Bagnaia (See here)
FP4	1'37.341 Fabio Quartararo (see here)
Q1	1'36.916 Franco Morbidelli (see here)
Q2	1'36.755 Fabio Quartararo (see here)
Warm Up	1'37.688 Johann Zarco (see here)
Course	Miller, Bagnaia, Morbidelli (see here)
All time lap record	1'36.584 Maverick Viñales (2020)

When the red lights go out… for once Marc Marquez rushes off first, perhaps impatient to make up for his two falls the day before. Fabio Quartararo the last one rushes.

In terms of tires, the medium is unanimous at the front and rear, even if some soft rears are still present at Johann Zarco, Stefan Bradl, Jack Miller and Alex Marquez.

At the end of the first flying round, Maverick Vinales registered the first benchmark in 1'38.603 ahead of his teammate Alex Espargaro. Top Gun uses a new helmet decoration dubbed by Tom Cruise himself…

In the next passage, we reverse the order and it is Alex Espargaro who leads in 1'37.732 ahead Maverick Vinales. This improvement ofAlex Espargaro comes out temporarily Jack Miller from the top 10 combined.

Johann zarco in his works under the morning sun of Andalusia…

After a good 10 minutes, Aprilia's spearhead improved to 1'37.386, ahead of his brother Pol Espargaro, Fabio Quartararo, Brad Binder and Marco Bezzecchi, when most drivers return to their box. At this point in the session, only Aleix Espargaro, Marco Bezzecchi, Franco Morbidelli, Marc Marquez and Andrea Dovizioso improved their times from the day before.

On resumption, Joan mir achieves the best time of the session in 1'37.341 with a soft rear tire, which allows him to enter the top 10 in the combined and leaves Maverick Viñales.

Meanwhile, fabio quartararo lines up the laps with his medium rear tire at a very good pace: clearly, the French driver is working this morning more for the race than for qualifying...

Fabio DiGiannantonio left with a hard front tire, Alex Espargaro with a tender rear. The Catalan then attacks a very fast lap but seems to have a problem in the fourth sector and returns to his box.

As the last quarter of an hour approaches, there are now five of them using the hard front tire, Brad Binder, Francesco Bagnaia, Enea Bastianini, Fabio Di Giannantonio and Remy Gardner, while the tender ones also begin to flower at the back…

Joan mir drops his time to 1'37.122 but it's Francis Bagnaia who took command in 1'36.782, best time of the weekend so far!

Takaaki Nakagami rose to third position in the session, then to second in the next lap, a place quickly recovered by fabio quartararo in the process, who then only concedes 67/1000 to the Ducati rider.

Before the final rush, the top 10 combined is made up of Francesco Bagnaia, Fabio Quartararo, Takaaki Nakagami, Joan Mir, Enea Bastianini, Jorge Martin, Aleix Espargaro, Brad Binder, Alex Rins and Marco Bezzecchi.
Marc Márquez is then 14th, John Zarco17e.

Four minutes from the checkered flag, Stefan Bradl minor fall at turn #6, which leads to the traditional outing of the yellow flags…

Marc Márquez however, take advantage of the wheel of Jack Miller to climb to fourth position, while Maverick Vinales returns to the top 10 combined.

The new yellow flags leave when Alex Marquez fall at turn #13 but the marshals work really quickly and it doesn't last long.

In the last minute, fabio quartararo lights the first three sectors in red but fails in the fourth. Johann zarco, who was in his wheel, took the opportunity to return to the gates of the top 10 but that was not enough, especially as he was carrying behind him Enea Bastianini who took advantage of it...

The session ends with the fall of Pol Espargaro in the last turn.

Finally, Francesco Bagnaia, Fabio Quartararo, Takaaki Nakagami, Marc Márquez, Maverick Vinales, Enea Bastianini, Aleix Espargaro, Joan Mir, Jorge Martin and Jack Miller are therefore prequalified for Q2.

See you at 13:30 p.m. for FP4!

Results of FP3 of the MotoGP Spanish Grand Prix in Jerez:

Classification credit: MotoGP.com