Quartararo tops Jerez MotoGP FP3 with new lap record

Fabio Quartararo headed the times in FP3 for the MotoGP Spanish grand prix at Jerez, posting a new track record in the process.

The Jerez track surface was in much better shape this morning relative to the sweltering conditions of FP2 yesterday afternoon, allowing the 22 riders a shot of improving their best times from yesterday and battle for a slot in Q2 and the fight for pole later on.

The Petronas SRT man continued his strong Friday form that saw him languish second overnight early on in FP3, posting his fastest efforts just past the mid-point of the 45 minute test.

He set two laps quick enough for the top spot at that point, but his second of 1:36.806 was ultimately enough to see him lead the ten riders that will head straight into Q2 later on today.

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His scorching tour is also the fastest ever two-wheeled lap of the Jerez venue, beating his own previous record of 1:36.880 that got him pole position for last year’s event.

Second went the way of Jack Miller, the Australian by far and away the highest Ducati representative on the leader board having lapped just 0.052 away from Quartararo’s benchmark.

Joan Mir was third quickest for Suzuki having lapped a further half-a-tenth slower than Miller, while Marc Marquez ensured there were four different bikes represented in the top four with a time three-tenths quicker than he managed yesterday.

Maverick Vinales completed the top five ahead of Cal Crutchlow’s LCR-run Honda, with Franco Morbidelli continuing to mix it in the top ten after topping FP2 yesterday.

Valentino Rossi displayed better form today relative to yesterday-where he failed to reach the top ten in either session-while Francesco Bagnaia and Andrea Dovizioso were the final men to nab direct-to-Q2 spots on their Ducati’s-the top ten covered by just over three-tenths.

Pol Espargaro was the unlucky man to just lose out on the opportunity to skip Q1, Dovizioso improving on his final flyer to knock the KTM racer out of the top ten by just 0.038.

Alex Rins also has work to do in Q1 after only managing the 12^th fastest effort, while Danilo Petrucci and Brad Binder will be disappointed with 13^th and 16^th on the timesheets respectively.

The only crasher during the session was Iker Lecuona, who fell while trying to replicate his top ten performance from yesterday’s FP2 session on his final flyer-ultimately ending up at the foot of the times along with the struggling Alex Marquez on the second factory Honda.  

Jerez de la Frontera, Saturday, July 18, 2020