Oliveira tops third Portimao practice, highside crash for Marquez

Miguel Oliveira led the way on home soil in the third practice session at a still-wet Portimao, with Marc Marquez among those to be thrown off their bikes.

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Key moments:

> Marquez, Binder and Bezzecchi in big crashes

> Quartararo gets Yamaha into Q2

> Q1 beckons for Bastianini, Rins, Bagnaia

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With the track soaked at the start of the session but not wet enough for Friday times to be out of reach, Marquez was among those pushing for a weekend-best laptime when he was chucked off his Honda exiting the Turn 8 right-hander.

A nasty little flick over the top for @marcmarquez93! 😱

The @HRC_MotoGP rider manages to pick his RC213V up and ride it back to the pits 💪#PortugueseGP 🇵🇹 pic.twitter.com/pkLurs9gT3

— MotoGP™🏁 (@MotoGP) April 23, 2022

Thought it was a relatively low-speed fall, Marquez was launched high enough for the visor on his helmet to come loose from the impact of the subsequent landing – but he was immediately back on his feet and actually managed to ride his RC213V back to the pits. He would return to the track in the final minutes of FP3.

A few minutes after his crash, Marquez’s Friday benchmark was bettered by home hero Oliveira – but just as this looked to set up a blockbuster battle for automatic Q2 spots, rain made its return, soon intensifying to render the rest of the session a formality.

Alongside Oliveira and his 1m50.552s, the likes of Joan Mir (Suzuki), Fabio Quartararo (Yamaha) and Brad Binder (KTM) also managed to dip below Marquez’s Friday effort, with Binder then highsiding off his RC16 through Turn 9, unhurt.

The rain has started falling again! ⚠️@BradBinder_41 gets caught out almost instantly while pushing to get a lap in before it gets too wet! 💥#PortugueseGP 🇵🇹 pic.twitter.com/RNEfsO4ikJ

— MotoGP™🏁 (@MotoGP) April 23, 2022

Johann Zarco (Pramac Ducati), Aleix Espargaro (Aprilia) and Jack Miller (Ducati) completed the top seven in the session to book their spots in Q2, Espargaro doing so at the expense of team-mate Maverick Vinales right before rain picked up.

Marquez, Honda factory team-mate Pol Espargaro and VR46 Ducati rookie Marco Bezzecchi were the three riders to advance to Q2 on the strength of their Friday times.

Bezzecchi was thrown off his bike at Turn 1 in the final minutes of the session, joining a list of FP3 fallers that also included fellow rookie Darryn Binder (RNF Yamaha) and LCR Honda’s Alex Marquez.

Among those who will go through the first qualifying segment later today are the top two in the standings, Enea Bastianini (Gresini Ducati) and Alex Rins (Suzuki), as well as Ducati’s Francesco Bagnaia and Pramac Ducati’s Jorge Martin.

Practice 3 Results