Yamaha’s disgruntled MotoGP rider Maverick Vinales topped a third consecutive practice session at Assen on Saturday morning.
The early runs on used rubber left Vinales with a commanding lead of nearly six tenths at the top of the FP3 classification, and it took Fabio Quartararo an attempt on the fresh soft rear to briefly dethrone his team-mate.
But Vinales had himself fitted a pair of fresh softs by then, and it took him no time at all to reclaim first place, the Yamaha man doing so by a quarter of a second with a 1m32.336s.
Unlike Vinales, Quartararo did improve in the final minutes of the session, but could only get within two tenths of Vinales.
Honda rider Pol Espargaro continued what appears to be a breakout weekend by taking third place, followed by brother Aleix in fourth for Aprilia, and the two Suzukis of Joan Mir and Alex Rins making up the top six.
LCR Honda’s Takaaki Nakagami shrugged off a string of track limits laptime deletions to set the seventh-fastest time, while form man Miguel Oliveira was the only KTM booking an automatic Q2 spot in eighth.
Valentino Rossi (Petronas Yamaha) and Jack Miller (Ducati) completed the top 10 and will both likewise advance directly to Q2.
Late improvements for Rins and Aleix Espargaro relegated Ducati duo Johann Zarco and Francesco Bagnaia to contesting Q1. Miller would’ve likely joined them there too if Zarco’s Pramac team-mate Jorge Martin wasn’t balked by fellow rookie Enea Bastianini (Avintia Ducati) in the final sector of a fast lap.
German GP winner Marc Marquez appeared to struggle following his huge crash in Friday practice and only ended up 15th.
That could be a costly crash! 😲@JohannZarco1 loses some crucial track time with a fall at Turn 3! 💢#DutchGP 🇳🇱 pic.twitter.com/uwB4O50LzB
— MotoGP™🏁 (@MotoGP) June 26, 2021
Petronas Yamaha stand-in Garrett Gerloff was 22nd and last, having crashed during the time attacks at the end of the session. The only other crash was Zarco’s, in the opening minutes.
Practice 3 Results
| Pos | Name | Team | Bike | Gap Next | Gap Leader | Best Time |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Maverick Viñales | Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP | Yamaha | 1m32.336s | ||
| 2 | Fabio Quartararo | Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP | Yamaha | +0.197s | +0.197s | 1m32.533s |
| 3 | Pol Espargaró | Repsol Honda Team | Honda | +0.108s | +0.305s | 1m32.641s |
| 4 | Aleix Espargaró | Aprilia Racing Team Gresini | Aprilia | +0.106s | +0.411s | 1m32.747s |
| 5 | Joan Mir | Team SUZUKI ECSTAR | Suzuki | +0.001s | +0.412s | 1m32.748s |
| 6 | Alex Rins | Team SUZUKI ECSTAR | Suzuki | +0.097s | +0.509s | 1m32.845s |
| 7 | Takaaki Nakagami | LCR Honda IDEMITSU | Honda | +0.008s | +0.517s | 1m32.853s |
| 8 | Miguel Oliveira | Red Bull KTM Factory Racing | KTM | +0.018s | +0.535s | 1m32.871s |
| 9 | Valentino Rossi | Petronas Yamaha SRT | Yamaha | +0.023s | +0.558s | 1m32.894s |
| 10 | Jack Miller | Ducati Lenovo Team | Ducati | +0.013s | +0.571s | 1m32.907s |
| 11 | Johann Zarco | Pramac Racing | Ducati | +0.031s | +0.602s | 1m32.938s |
| 12 | Francesco Bagnaia | Ducati Lenovo Team | Ducati | +0.003s | +0.605s | 1m32.941s |
| 13 | Jorge Martin | Pramac Racing | Ducati | +0.033s | +0.638s | 1m32.974s |
| 14 | Danilo Petrucci | Tech3 KTM Factory Racing | KTM | +0.052s | +0.69s | 1m33.026s |
| 15 | Marc Marquez | Repsol Honda Team | Honda | +0.043s | +0.733s | 1m33.069s |
| 16 | Brad Binder | Red Bull KTM Factory Racing | KTM | +0.018s | +0.751s | 1m33.087s |
| 17 | Alex Marquez | LCR Honda Castrol | Honda | +0.163s | +0.914s | 1m33.25s |
| 18 | Iker Lecuona | Tech3 KTM Factory Racing | KTM | +0.106s | +1.02s | 1m33.356s |
| 19 | Lorenzo Savadori | Aprilia Racing Team Gresini | Aprilia | +0.012s | +1.032s | 1m33.368s |
| 20 | Luca Marini | SKY VR46 Avintia Team | Ducati | +0.097s | +1.129s | 1m33.465s |
| 21 | Enea Bastianini | Avintia Esponsorama Racing | Ducati | +0.388s | +1.517s | 1m33.853s |
| 22 | Garrett Gerloff | Petronas Yamaha SRT | Yamaha | +0.401s | +1.918s | 1m34.254s |
