Maverick Vinales fired to the top of the timesheets during FP3 for the Andalucian grand prix with the fastest ever motorcycle lap of the Jerez circuit.
The factory Yamaha man looked to be a shade behind Fabio Quartararo throughout the session, but managed to pull out a rapid 1:36.584 tour in the closing minutes of the test to snatch the top spot away from the Frenchman.
Quartararo’s earlier 1:36.643 was still enough to keep him second and allow him to follow his fellow Yamaha ace directly into Q2 later on this afternoon, while Jack Miller managed to drag his Pramac Ducati to the third quickest time.
Takaaki Nakagami continued his impressive FP2-leading pace from Friday to bag a surprise fourth fastest in FP3 for his LCR Honda outfit, just edging out Francesco Bagnaia’s GP20 Ducati in fifth.
Danilo Petrucci finally showed speed on his factory Ducati machine to take sixth in the session ahead of top rookie Brad Binder on his KTM in seventh, while Valentino Rossi ensured both official Yamaha’s would progress straight to Q2 in eighth.
Completing the guaranteed Q2 runners were the second factory KTM of Pol Espargaro and Joan Mir’s Suzuki GSX-RR.
Aleix Espargaro was the man who just missed out skipping Q1, despite crashing twice during FP2 at Turns 2 and 10 respectively.
The Aprilia racer came just 0.017 away from knocking Mir from the top ten, although he managed to at least get the best of several big names behind.
Franco Morbidelli struggled to post a strong final effort and slipped to 12th, while Andrea Dovizioso was the only man on a Ducati GP20 to not make it into Q2-the Italian managing just the 14th quickest time.
Marc Marquez meanwhile ventured out on track at the start of the session in order to evaluate the status of his broken arm having elected to miss running on Friday.
The world champion was quickly down to a respectable speed, lapping just a second away from the leading Friday times after just a few laps.
He ultimately fell to 20th by the time the flag came down on the session, although just 1.2 seconds down on Vinales’ benchmark lap and ahead of Bradley Smith on the second Aprilia.
Cal Crutchlow did a solid job to post the 17th best time with his broken wrist, while Alex Rins decided to skip FP3 after riding on Friday. His participation in qualifying is as yet unknown.
Jerez de la Frontera, Saturday, July 25, 2020
| # | Rider | Team | Time | Gap / Interval |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Maverick VIÑALES | Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP | 1’36.584 | |
| 2 | Fabio QUARTARARO | Petronas Yamaha SRT | 1’36.643 | 0.059 / 0.059 |
| 3 | Jack MILLER | Pramac Racing | 1’36.710 | 0.126 / 0.067 |
| 4 | Takaaki NAKAGAMI | LCR Honda IDEMITSU | 1’36.842 | 0.258 / 0.132 |
| 5 | Francesco BAGNAIA | Pramac Racing | 1’36.847 | 0.263 / 0.005 |
| 6 | Danilo PETRUCCI | Ducati Team | 1’36.937 | 0.353 / 0.090 |
| 7 | Brad BINDER | Red Bull KTM Factory Racing | 1’36.938 | 0.354 / 0.001 |
| 8 | Valentino ROSSI | Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP | 1’36.988 | 0.404 / 0.050 |
| 9 | Pol ESPARGARO | Red Bull KTM Factory Racing | 1’36.995 | 0.411 / 0.007 |
| 10 | Joan MIR | Team SUZUKI ECSTAR | 1’37.053 | 0.469 / 0.058 |
| 11 | Aleix ESPARGARO | Aprilia Racing Team Gresini | 1’37.070 | 0.486 / 0.017 |
| 12 | Franco MORBIDELLI | Petronas Yamaha SRT | 1’37.180 | 0.596 / 0.110 |
| 13 | Miguel OLIVEIRA | Red Bull KTM Tech 3 | 1’37.278 | 0.694 / 0.098 |
| 14 | Andrea DOVIZIOSO | Ducati Team | 1’37.295 | 0.711 / 0.017 |
| 15 | Johann ZARCO | Hublot Reale Avintia | 1’37.304 | 0.720 / 0.009 |
| 16 | Alex MARQUEZ | Repsol Honda Team | 1’37.557 | 0.973 / 0.253 |
| 17 | Cal CRUTCHLOW | LCR Honda CASTROL | 1’37.621 | 1.037 / 0.064 |
| 18 | Tito RABAT | Hublot Reale Avintia | 1’37.828 | 1.244 / 0.207 |
| 19 | Marc MARQUEZ | Repsol Honda Team | 1’37.882 | 1.298 / 0.054 |
| 20 | Bradley SMITH | Aprilia Racing Team Gresini | 1’38.016 | 1.432 / 0.134 |
| 21 | Iker LECUONA | Red Bull KTM Tech 3 | 1’38.360 | 1.776 / 0.344 |
| Alex RINS | Team SUZUKI ECSTAR |
