One week after his 21st place in qualifying and his last place at the Sachsenring in his worst MotoGP weekend of all time, Vinales has been in sovereign form at the round in Assen so far.
The forecast rain for FP3 did not materialize on Saturday morning, which firmly opened the door to improvements in the combined sequence in the decision on who will be the direct Q2 participants for qualifying.
Aprilia’s Aleix Espargaro was the first major climber in the combined mandate. The Spaniard shot in a time of 1: 33.442 minutes to move up from seventh to fourth and move to the top of the session.
There were numerous improvements over the combined order in the first 10 minutes of the 45-minute session, although Vinales’ 1.33,072 minutes from Friday was left untouched.
Vinales, who said on Friday that he had not copied his teammate’s attitudes, as he said he would move the goal posts with 1: 32.848 minutes with 25 minutes to go after his deplorable German GP.
The Yamaha rider improved this to 1: 32.686 minutes on his next lap, before team-mate Quartararo was ahead with 1: 32.597 minutes.
With just over 11 minutes to go, Vinales returned to the top of the rankings with 1: 32.336 minutes, while World Champion Joan Mir on the Suzuki jumped into third place.
Vinales was unbeatable with 1: 32.336 minutes and kept him at the top of the overall standings, with 1: 32.533 minutes too late for leaders Quartararo, who consolidated second place.
Hondas Pol Espargaro enjoyed a strong weekend on his RC213V in Assen, testing new chassis team-mate Marquez, who was fielded on Friday.
The Spaniard relaxed with 1: 32.641 minutes in Q2 and is third in FP3 ahead of his brother Aleix on Aprilia.
Both Suzuki drivers showed an encouraging one-lap pace in FP3, with Mir and teammate Alex Rins going fifth and sixth and at the end of the morning session safely in Q2.
Takaaki Nakagami canceled numerous laps for violating the track restrictions, but after his death achieved a time of 1: 32.853 minutes to jump to seventh place on his LRC Honda and into Q2 ahead of Miguel Oliveira from KTM.
Valentino Rossi will make his fourth appearance in Q2 after finishing FP3 in ninth place on his Petronas SRT Yamaha, Jack Miller is the only Ducati in Q2 to finish 10th in just 0.031 seconds.
Miller’s entry into Q2 was at the expense of Pramac’s Johann Zarco, with a costly early fall that left him on 11th
Martin was on course to enter Q2 with a strong lap at the end, but was stopped in the last sector by Enea Bastianini’s Avintia Ducati.
Marc Marquez came out on Saturday sore and injured from his bad fall in FP2 on Friday and has to go through Q1 after finishing FP3 15th of the combined times ahead of Brad Binder of KTM.
Franco Morbidelli’s injury-related replacement Garrett Gerloff was the last after a late fall on his SRT Yamaha.