The Spanish driver from Fausto Gresini's team successfully made the switch from Mahindra to Honda by setting the best time in free practice, improving on the time set the day before by Philipp Oettl. But Romano Fenati followed him closely, ahead of the very consistent Oettl and Bo Bendsneyder.
The time to improve was the 2'06.981 achieved the day before by Philipp Oettl. KTM dominated with 5 motorcycles on Thursday among the first 7, but the Hondas of Joan mir et Roman Fenati were very present. The same could not be said for that ofEnea Bastianini, painful twenty-seventh at 1.9. The Mahindras had been quite discreet, with Bezzecchi (CIP) best placed in fifteenth position.
| Losail – Qatar – Moto3 | 2016 | 2017 |
| FP1 | 2'06.456 Livio Loi | 2'06.981 Philipp Öttl |
| FP2 | 2'05.832 Livio Loi | 2'07.955 Bo Bendsneyder |
| FP3 | 2'05.859 Fabio Quartararo | |
| QP | 2'06.131 Romano Fenati | |
| Warm Up | 2'06.948 Niccolo Antonelli | |
| Course | Antonelli Binder Bagnaia | |
| All time lap record | 2'05.832 Law 2016 |
For this third session, the air temperature was 22° like the day before and the track temperature was 23°. After the heavy rain of the morning, the asphalt could have been free of rubber deposits, but the second MotoGP session which preceded this FP3 resolved this problem.
Roman Fenati established the base time in 2'08.2. It was relayed at the top of the timing screens by John mcphee in 2'08.0, then the advantage returned to Juanfran Guevara, now the only driver on the RBA team after breaking his collarbone Gabriel Rodrigo, in 2'07.8. George Martin was getting closer to 0.02. The bikes were then in race configuration – rather than qualifying – and no large group formed. Enea Bastianini stalled in twenty-third position. Jules Danilo was twenty-eighth.
A quarter of an hour from the end, Aron canet took the best time in 2'07.7, just behind Juanfran Guevara who came second in 2'07.8. Several drivers ran on hard tires in this third session to save the mediums.
At the end of the session, Will Bendsneyder picked up the pace on his KTM in 2'07.257, but he was overtaken by Philipp Oettl on an identical bike in 2'07.159. George Martin took command 8 minutes from the end in 2'06.817 on his Honda Gresini, the best time achieved since the start of testing. He then had a three-tenths lead over Oettl. The compact groups were beginning to form, most of the riders wearing Dunlop mediums, the softest available for this Grand Prix.
Romano Fenati moved into second position, 0.1 behind Martin and the two men closed the third session in that order, 0.3 ahead of Philipp Oettl, Bo Bendsneyder and Niccolo Antonelli. Jules Danilo finished twenty-fifth.
Results of the third free practice session:
Reference times:
Test record: 2'05.832 by Livio Loi (Honda) in 2016 (FP2)
Lap record: 2'05.862 by Alexis Masbou (Honda) in 2014
Best top speed: 240,3 km/h for Bo Bendsneyder (KTM) in 2016
