Gresini Ducati rider Enea Bastianini booked a Q2 spot in Qatar GP qualifying by topping the third practice session, with champion Fabio Quartararo heading to Q1 instead.
Eighth-fastest after Friday, Quartararo reckoned the combined practice top 10 was “not extremely safe” to guarantee a Q2 spot despite the less optimal daytime conditions of FP3.
In the final minutes of Saturday’s opening session, he was proven conclusively correct – with Bastianini suddenly firing in a 1m53.382s, the fastest laptime of the weekend so far, only to have it taken away due to a last-corner track limits infringement.
But Bastianini kept at it, and his last-gasp effort at the chequered flag put him top of the times despite being four tenths off his prior effort.
This should’ve theoretically promoted him into a Q2 spot at Francesco Bagnaia’s expense, yet Bagnaia himself improved on his 10th-best Friday time and also secured a place in the pole shootout, slotting in third in FP3 behind Bastianini and Honda’s Pol Espargaro.
It meant Quartararo, despite finishing fourth in FP3, was consigned to contesting Q1, having missed out on a spot in the combined top 10 by just 0.020s.
The seven riders who didn’t improve on their Friday times but still made it to Q2 automatically were Alex Rins (Suzuki), Marc Marquez (Honda), Joan Mir (Suzuki), Jorge Martin (Pramac Ducati), Franco Morbidelli (Yamaha), Jack Miller (Ducati) and Aleix Espargaro (Aprilia).
There was one crash courtesy of Morbidelli at Turn 6 midway through the session.
Practice 3 Results
| Pos | Name | Team | Bike | Gap Next | Gap Leader | Best Time |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Enea Bastianini | Gresini Racing MotoGP | Ducati | 1m53.79s | ||
| 2 | Pol Espargaró | Repsol Honda Team | Honda | +0.013s | +0.013s | 1m53.803s |
| 3 | Francesco Bagnaia | Ducati Lenovo Team | Ducati | +0.052s | +0.065s | 1m53.855s |
| 4 | Fabio Quartararo | Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP | Yamaha | +0.084s | +0.149s | 1m53.939s |
| 5 | Brad Binder | Red Bull KTM Factory Racing | KTM | +0.072s | +0.221s | 1m54.011s |
| 6 | Johann Zarco | Pramac Racing | Ducati | +0.094s | +0.315s | 1m54.105s |
| 7 | Miguel Oliveira | Red Bull KTM Factory Racing | KTM | +0.299s | +0.614s | 1m54.404s |
| 8 | Joan Mir | Team SUZUKI ECSTAR | Suzuki | +0.172s | +0.786s | 1m54.576s |
| 9 | Jorge Martin | Pramac Racing | Ducati | +0.043s | +0.829s | 1m54.619s |
| 10 | Maverick Viñales | Aprilia Racing | Aprilia | +0.039s | +0.868s | 1m54.658s |
| 11 | Alex Rins | Team SUZUKI ECSTAR | Suzuki | +0.14s | +1.008s | 1m54.798s |
| 12 | Luca Marini | Mooney VR46 Racing Team | Ducati | +0.017s | +1.025s | 1m54.815s |
| 13 | Fabio Di Giannantonio | Gresini Racing MotoGP | Ducati | +0.087s | +1.112s | 1m54.902s |
| 14 | Aleix Espargaró | Aprilia Racing | Aprilia | +0.114s | +1.226s | 1m55.016s |
| 15 | Marc Marquez | Repsol Honda Team | Honda | +0.081s | +1.307s | 1m55.097s |
| 16 | Remy Gardner | Tech3 KTM Factory Racing | KTM | +0.019s | +1.326s | 1m55.116s |
| 17 | Takaaki Nakagami | LCR Honda IDEMITSU | Honda | +0.038s | +1.364s | 1m55.154s |
| 18 | Marco Bezzecchi | Mooney VR46 Racing Team | Ducati | +0.037s | +1.401s | 1m55.191s |
| 19 | Andrea Dovizioso | WithU Yamaha RNF MotoGP Team | Yamaha | +0.002s | +1.403s | 1m55.193s |
| 20 | Jack Miller | Ducati Lenovo Team | Ducati | +0.133s | +1.536s | 1m55.326s |
| 21 | Darryn Binder | WithU Yamaha RNF MotoGP Team | Yamaha | +0.057s | +1.593s | 1m55.383s |
| 22 | Alex Marquez | LCR Honda Castrol | Honda | +0.019s | +1.612s | 1m55.402s |
| 23 | Franco Morbidelli | Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP | Yamaha | +0.029s | +1.641s | 1m55.431s |
| 24 | Raul Fernandez | Tech3 KTM Factory Racing | KTM | +0.259s | +1.9s | 1m55.69s |
