A light splash of rain before the session was a potential problem for those outside the top 10 who had secured a spot in the second quarter at a combined point in time.
Aprilia’s Lorenzo Savadori set the early pace on wet rubber with 1: 46.614 minutes, although it wasn’t long before the track was good enough for slicks. Petronas SRT’s Quartararo was the first to take the plunge.
The Frenchman drove a number of laps with the best session, culminating in a time of 1: 32.037 minutes, with about 23 minutes left.
KTM’s Pol Espargaro took over with a time of 1: 31.897 minutes before Maverick Vinales moved up with a time of 1: 31.615 minutes – these lap times did not affect the combined order significantly.
However, Morbidelli changed that when he shot to the top of the FP3 order and fourth on the combined timesheets with a time of 1: 30.751 seconds.
A 1: 30.812 from Vinales in the final five minutes put him in fifth place on the combined time and put Alex Rins on the Suzuki into the danger zone in tenth.
In the meantime, his team-mate and championship leader, Mir, had problems getting a lap time out of fresh soft rubber again in the final stages and couldn’t move from 13th place as the session neared its end.
A final attempt by Morbidelli of 1: 30.168 seconds put him 0.468 seconds ahead of the field and KTM’s Pol Espargaro jumped into second place late.
A late improvement for Johann Zarco in third place (which put him in fourth place overall) over the Avintia Ducati proved disastrous for Quartararo as it pushed him out of the top 10 after briefly finishing eighth jumped.
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For the first time in his MotoGP career, Quartararo has to take second place in the overall standings alongside the man he ranks in the overall standings with Rins, who finished in 15th overall after eleventh place in FP3.
Vinales led Mir, who secured second place in the second quarter with 1: 30: 734 minutes. Takaaki Nakagami (LCR), Miguel Oliveira from Tech3 and Aleix Espargaro from Aprilia rounded out the top 8 in RP3 and secured places in the second quarter.
The top 10 in RP3 were completed by Quartararo and Danilo Petrucci from Ducati, although both will face Q1, as will Andrea Dovizioso from sister factory Ducati and Valentino Rossi from Yamaha.
The Pramac duo of Jack Miller and Francesco Bagnaia finished 14th and 16th in the third RP, but their laps from the second RP were good enough to secure the spots in the second quarter.
Tech3’s Iker Lecuona was unable to return to activity as expected this morning after testing positive for COVID-19.