Maverick Vinales fired himself into an automatic Q2 spot with the fastest time in an FP3 session hit with mixed conditions, the Yamaha man leading Jack Miller by just 0.046.
The session began with a rather damp Red Bull Ring track surface, although a dry line was beginning to peep through-instigating all 22 riders to head straight out on wet compound tyres in an attempt to get the circuit dry enough to challenge Friday’s dry FP1 times.
The circuit continued to improve until Alex Marquez became the first to switch to slicks with around a third of the test remaining, the Spaniard instantly carving into the time deficit to FP1.
Track evolution kept going at a rapid pace until Vinales was able to bang in a lap good enough for seventh in the combined table with just a few minutes of the session remaining.
The factory Yamaha man continued to etch away at his lap time until he had achieved a 1:24.317 as the session came to a close, leaving him as FP3 leader and third in the overall table.
Miller was another to improve his position in the combined table in the dying moments of FP3, his 1:24.363 enough for fourth overall.
Andrea Dovizioso was third quickest ahead of Alex Rins’ Suzuki, while Miguel Oliveira managed to bag himself a Q2 berth with a late improvement that fired him into seventh in the combined table and fifth on the FP3 timesheets.
Joan Mir was able to post a late improvement to take sixth in the session and eighth overall just ahead of combined practice leader Pol Espargaro, while Fabio Quartararo was able to squeak into a direct Q2 passage with a late final effort-bumping Johann Zarco out and into Q1.
Danilo Petrucci and Cal Crutchlow completed the FP3 top ten, although both will have to take part in Q1 later on as their best efforts weren’t quite enough to move them into the top ten in the combined standings.
Completing the Q2 starters are Takaaki Nakagami-whose FP1 time in Friday was enough to keep him fifth overall- and Franco Morbidelli, the Petronas SRT man just hanging on with his own first practice gambit down in ninth in combined times.
Valentino Rossi is another big casualty forced to fight for a chance to get into the pole shootout when qualifying gets underway later this afternoon, as is Brno victor Brad Binder-the KTM racer only able to manage 16th overall.
Michele Pirro was a solid 17th meanwhile in his first 2020 MotoGP appearance as replacement to the injured Francesco Bagnaia at Pramac, the Italian just over a tenth clear of Aleix Espargaro on the fastest Aprilia in 18th.
Marquez ultimately slipped down 19th in the combined table as FP3 came to a close as the fastest of the factory Honda representatives, team-mate Stefan Bradl a further tenth back in 21st overall.
