Francesco Bagnaia took the top spot in a hard-fought Styrian MotoGP FP3 ahead of Yamaha riders Fabio Quartararo and Maverick Vinales.
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In a dry and sunny FP3, Jack Miller, Marc Marquez and Pol Espargaro were the first riders to improve their FP1 times, while Jorge Martin quickly followed suit and moved up from 17th after just seven minutes.
With significantly improved grip compared to the first available day – even after the heavy rain of FP2 – Vinales was fastest overall 30 minutes before the end, while team-mate Quartararo moved back into the top ten after briefly falling out of the automatic Q2 positions.
Joan Mir’s decision to ride a new soft front and rear wheel for half of the remaining session resulted in him being the fastest of Vinales by two tenths.
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Suzuki riders Mir and Alex Rins were both spotted wearing the team’s new rear height stabilization device after being unable to do so during the race on Friday.
The time attacks began a little more than ten minutes before the end when eight-time world champion Marquez set a mark of 1: 23.513s. That was quickly beaten by Vinales when Marquez returned to the pit lane.
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Vinales continued to improve with a time of 1: 23.375s, while Martin’s strong session continued. The Spaniard finished third with eight minutes remaining, seconds before his Ducati colleague Francesco Bagnaia relegated him to fourth place.
There was tension on the track between the two Monster Energy Yamaha riders when Quartararo dived inside Vinales at turn three – causing the Spaniard to sit up and run off the track – as did Quartararo. Both drivers began to gesticulate to each other on the track and when entering the pit lane.
Quartararo briefly finished second in his last run, but the championship leader’s time was canceled because the track limits were exceeded. The Frenchman recovered to be fastest on his next lap, while Luca Marini became the first crash of the session on turn one.
However, Quartararo did not finish the session as the fastest, instead it was Bagnaia who took first place with just -0.028 seconds.
Martin suffered a somewhat embarrassing crash after the session ended while attempting to turn around on corner one after going off the track.
The Spaniard managed to occupy fourth-fastest place and, together with his Ducati colleagues Johann Zarco and Miller, who finished sixth and ninth, secure direct access to Q2.
Marquez and Nakagami also secured automatic places in Q2, as did Mir and Aprilia driver Aleix Espargaro. The big names to be missed were both Brad Binder and Miguel Oliveira’s factory KTMs and Suzuki’s Rins.
After undergoing further medical examinations after FP2, Oliveira was back on track during FP3 after suffering no fractures.