MotoGP Valence FP3 LIVE: The Ducatis are on fire!

0,005 seconds ahead in favor of fabio quartararo (Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP™) on Francis Bagnaia (Ducati Lenovo Team) was the gap that separated the two world title contenders at the end of the first day of the Valencia MotoGP Grand Prix at the Ricardo Tormo circuit.

The usual process seems to repeat itself once again: fabio quartararo is very fast from the start, and in fact dominated FP1, then had to bow to the Ducati at the time of the time attack, when they switched to the soft rear tires.

This is how we find three Desmosedici in the first three places in the combined provisional ranking, Luca marini (Mooney VR46 Racing Team) preceding with a time of 1'30.217 Jorge Martín (Prima Pramac Racing) a tenth behind and Jack Miller (Ducati Lenovo Team) only 23/1000 further. Marc Márquez (Repsol Honda Team), the specialist in circuits that turn left, Enea Bastianini (Gresini Racing MotoGP™), Miguel Oliveira (Red Bull KTM Factory Racing), Johann zarco (Prima Pramac Racing), fabio quartararo, Francis Bagnaia et Brad Binder (Red Bull KTM Factory Racing) complete the top 10 which has, for the moment, obtained direct passage to Qualification 2.

But there is still one last session before finalizing this list, and the gaps being so tight, with the first 10 held within 0,3 seconds, that nothing is certain for anyone for the moment, the image of the last 5 highly contested minutes of FP2:

Before discovering more, as the 24 drivers prepare for this third 45-minute free practice session under an immaculate blue sky with temperatures of 16° in the air and 36° on the ground, let's take advantage of these a few minutes of live broadcast thanks to the official website MotoGP.com:

MotoGP ™ Valencia	2021	2022
FP1	1'40.569 Iker Lecuona (See here)	1'31.399 Fabio Quartararo (See here)
FP2	1'30.927 Jack Miller (See here)	1'30.217 Luca Marini (See here)
FP3	1'30.529 Aleix Espargaró (See here)	1'29.921 Jack Miller (See here)
FP4	1'31.208 Takaaki Nakagami (See here)
Q1	1'30.673 Alex Rins (See here)
Q2	1'29.96 Jorge Martín (See here)
Warm up	1'31.082 Joan Mir (See here)
Course	Bagnaia, Martin, Miller (See here)
All time lap record	1'29.401 Jorge Lorenzo (2016)

 

When the red lights go out... Franco Morbidelli resumes the tradition of starting first, fabio quartararo that of leaving last.

 

 

In terms of pneumatics, we immediately notice that Marc Márquez and a few other drivers kept the soft tires.

 

From the launch lap, Marco Bezzecchi falls at high speed in turn #7 and his motorcycle catches fire before the eyes of the boss.

 

 

The driver gets up but the session is interrupted with a red flag after 2 minutes.

 

 

The interruption only lasts a very short time but Darryn Binder makes a mistake from the start.

At the end of the first flying round, it is Raúl Fernández which records the first reference in 1'32.468, then Brad Binder in 1'31.382 on the following passage: The KTMs are in good shape!

Unfortunately, it is then the turn of Raúl Fernández to make a speed mistake at turn #10. The Spanish pilot gets up and moves away, staggering a little.

 

 

Meanwhile, Franco Morbidelli registered 1'31.336 at the top of the table but that's when Brad Binder who regains the advantage in 1'31.382.

Johann zarco takes command in 1'31.294, just ahead Marc Márquez, but no one has yet improved their time from the day before.

At the end of the first quarter of an hour, when the drivers begin to return to their boxes, Enea Bastianini loses control of his Ducati, again at turn #10, then Brad Binder does the same in #4.

 

 

The hierarchy of the session, for the moment of no great importance, therefore presents Johann zarco before Joan Mir, Marc Márquez, Miguel Oliveira, Brad Binder, Fabio Quartararo, Aleix Espargaró, Alex Rins, Jack Miller, Franco Morbidelli, Jorge Martin, Remy Gardner, Cal Crutchlow, Alex Márquez, Maverick Viñales, Francesco Bagnaia, Fabio Di Giannantonio, Takaaki Nakagami, Pol Espargaró, Luca Marini, Raúl Fernández, Darryn Binder, Marco Bezzecchi and Enea Bastianini who has still not recorded any time.

We then discover the Yamaha saddle fins in the box. Cal Crutchlow...

 

 

Takaaki Nakagami made a mistake at turn #4, followed shortly after by Maverick Vinales.

 

 

Johann zarco improved to 1'30.908 but 18 minutes from the checkered flag Joan mir passes a soft rear tire and registers 1'30.705, then 1'30.657 on the next pass.

It's a signal, and Jack Miller takes the lead in 1'30.095, the best time of the weekend so far.

 

 

Miguel Oliveira then took second place in the session but did not improve his time from the day before and remained in sixth place overall.

Marco Bezzecchi made a mistake for the second time, this time at turn #6.

fabio quartararo then achieves the second time of the session, the third in the combined, 2/10 behind Jack Miller.

Four minutes from the checkered flag, alex rins achieves the third time of the session, the fifth overall.

Everyone is now on a soft rear tire and the improvements are numerous: Brad Binder performs the third beat then Johann zarco takes provisional pole position in 1'30.026.

But we don't stop there and Jack Miller crossed the 1'30 mark in 1'29.921.

fabio quartararo hangs on tight and gives everything...

 

 

In the last moments, Francis Bagnaia climbed back to seventh position, ninth overall, before running out of fuel and being pushed by John Zarco.

 

 

Finally, Jack Miller, Johann Zarco, Brad Binder, Luca Marini, Fabio Quartararo, Marc Márquez, Aleix Espargaró, Jorge Martín, Francesco Bagnaia and Joan Mir are therefore prequalified for Q2.

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

 

Grand Prix FP3 results MotoGP of the Valencian Community on the Ricardo Tormo circuit:

FP1/FP2/FP3 Grand Prix results MotoGP of the Valencian Community on the Ricardo Tormo circuit:

Credit ranking: MotoGP.com