League leaders Quartararo secured their spot in Q2 for qualifying this afternoon after shooting in a late 1: 46.926, strong enough to withstand an attack by Aprilia’s Aleix Espargaro in 1: 46.949.
After 10 minutes of running, only reigning world champion Joan Mir had improved the combined order.
The Suzuki rider decided against a soft tire time attack in FP2 on Friday that put him in 21st place.
LCR Honda’s Takaaki Nakagami topped the schedule for each session after the first 10 minutes and eventually became the first rider to drop Jack Miller’s best on Friday.
Almost 20 minutes before the end, Nakagami took the lead in the overall standings with 1: 47.394 minutes, which he improved to 1: 47.317 minutes on the following lap.
He was leading Mir’s Suzuki by 0.016 seconds at this point, with LCR Honda’s Alex Marquez in fourth, Aprilia’s Aleix Espargaro in fifth and Miguel Oliveira on the factory KTM in sixth.
A little more than 10 minutes before the end, Quartararo made his first attack on the top of the timesheet with 1: 47.046 minutes before Francesco Bagnaia on his factory Ducati with 1: 46.984 minutes went into the 1: 46 minutes.
I was 0.002 seconds faster a few moments later, but Quartararo drove a 1: 46.926 minutes on his final flying lap and finished FP3 the fastest of all from Espargaro.
I stayed in the top three to make it comfortably into Q2, but for the time being the only Suzuki to compete in the pole shootout session after team-mate Alex Rins only finished 14th.
Bagnaia was pushed back to fourth place in the checkered flag by teammate Jack Miller and Pramac Ducatis Jorge Martin.
Pol Espargaro was Honda front runner at the end of FP3 in seventh, just 0.208 seconds off pace, while teammate Marquez finished eighth after falling on his final flying lap on the right-hand turn of Turn 14 – his second fall of the Aragon weekend.
Nakagami and Avintia rookie Enea Bastianini completed the top 10 and secured the remaining Q2 places in FP3, with Johann Zarco only missing 0.052 seconds on his Pramac Ducati.
Yamaha deputy Cal Crutchlow was on his way to a direct Q2 place but ended up being relegated to 12th place ahead of Miguel Oliveira from KTM, Rins and Valentino Rossi from Petronas SRT.
Just moments before his brother crashed, Alex Marquez crashed at Turn 12 and was left on a Q1 place.
Maverick Vinales will also compete in Q1 on his Aprilia debut, but was only 0.863 seconds behind the best pace in 17th place and found a second lap time compared to Friday.
He ran Brad Binder’s second factory KTM, Iker Lecuona from Tech 3, Luca Marini on the sister Avintia Ducati, Danilo Petrucci on the second Tech 3 KTM and SRT deputy Jake Dixon.