Bagnaia leads Yamaha trio in FP3, Dovizioso to Q1

Pramac Ducati MotoGP rider Francesco Bagnaia led a trio of Yamahas in the third practice session for the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix at Misano, as championship leader Andrea Dovizioso was consigned to Q1.

Bagnaia went below the Misano MotoGP lap record, but then crashed in the final minutes of the session, limping away from the site of the accident. The Italian had only returned to MotoGP action last weekend from an absence necessitated by a tibia fracture.

KTM rider Pol Espargaro led Bagnaia by 0.002s at the top of the timesheets for much of the session, with Bagnaia’s time already proving good enough to nudge him into the combined practice top 10 at that point – the Pramac man having ended Friday on course for Q1.

Espargaro then dipped into the 1m31s margin after equipping the soft tyres, but remained three tenths short of Friday pace, and was soon surpassed by Dovizioso (Ducati), Takaaki Nakagami (LCR Honda) and Joan Mir (Suzuki) in quick succession.

Mir lowered the session benchmark to a 1m31.722s with 10 minuets left to go, but this was still not enough to surpass Brad Binder’s FP2-topping lap.

However, that benchmark was demolished by Bagnaia a few moments later, the Pramac rider firing in a 1m31.127s to go well below not only Binder’s Friday lap, but also the pole record set by Maverick Vinales the prior weekend.

Though Bagnaia then crashed on his final run, his time would go unmatched, although Vinales – who appeared to be very unhappy with his initial runs in FP3 – lapped just 0.058s slower at the chequered flag.

The Petronas Yamaha duo of Fabio Quartararo and Franco Morbidelli made up the top four, 0.232s and 0.302s behind Bagnaia respectively.

A late improvement from Mir elevated him to fifth, with Valentino Rossi making it four Yamahas in Q2 in sixth and Danilo Petrucci being the sole works Ducati to secure an automatic Q2 berth in seventh.

Petrucci’s championship-leading team-mate Dovizioso was only 13th, just under two tenths behind Petrucci.

Nakagami settled for eighth, and progressed to Q2 automatically on the strength of his Friday time – as did the works KTM duo of Binder and Espargaro, the latter crashing at Turn 6 late in the session, around a minute before Bagnaia fell at the same corner.

Pramac Ducati’s Jack Miller and Aprilia’s Aleix Espargaro both made the top 10 in FP3 but will still have to contest Q1.

Miller had crashed after passing Tech3 KTM rider Iker Lecuona into Turn 1 on what was his very first flying lap in the session.

Lecuona’s team-mate Miguel Oliveira was the only other rider to crash, falling late on at Turn 15.

Practice 3 Results