Fabio Quartararo fired himself to the head of the times in FP3 for the Aragon Grand Prix with the fastest lap of the weekend late in the session.
Having been open prior to the weekend that the Motorland Aragon is far from his favourite of venues, the Yamaha rider shrugged off his trepidation to mix it with the front running pilots in the closing stages as the time attacks got underway.
Jack Miller’s Friday leading time was soon eclipsed by Takaaki Nakagami with around half of the test remaining, the LCR Honda ace managing a 1:47.394s as he looks to recapture the stunning form he possessed at Aragon last year that helped him to a first career pole, the Japanese rider improving to a 1:47.317s the very next lap.
Improvements soon started to come thick and fast though as the rest of the field bolted on a fresh set of soft compound tyres, Quartararo coming to the fore as he streaked to a 1:47.046s-though Ducati’s Francesco Bagnaia became the first man to lap underneath the 1:47 bracket this weekend with a 1:46.984s.
Quartararo would have the last laugh though as he managed to eke out a small improvement on his earlier time to post a 1:46.926s tour at the death, an effort ultimately enough to hold the top spot until the chequered flag was shown.
Aleix Espargaro continued to prove his and Aprilia’s pedigree around the Spanish circuit as he flew to the second quickest time just 0.023s shy of Quartararo’s gambit, with reigning MotoGP world champion Joan Mir also making his job easier with the third best time and therefore a rather rare direct-to-Q2 appearance.
Bagnaia ended up fourth ahead of FP2 leader and team-mate Miller, with Jorge Martin manoeuvring his Pramac Ducati into sixth with a late improvement.
Honda were also well represented in the top ten with Pol Espargaro the quickest of the RC213-V machines in seventh ahead of team-mate Marc Marquez-despite a late crash for the six-time premier class champion at Turn 14 late on-while Nakagami held on for an automatic Q2 berth in ninth.
Enea Bastianini meanwhile impressed as he bagged the final direct pole shootout spot on his year-old Avintia Ducati, the Italian rookie just fending off the other Pramac bike of Johann Zarco for the position by a slender 0.052s.
Cal Crutchlow continued where he left off on Friday as he again looked strong after struggling at Silverstone, the Brit looking like he could squeak an automatic Q2 place at one point before being shuffled back to 12th late on just ahead of fastest KTM representative Miguel Oliveira.
Alex Rins failed to match the pace of team-mate Mir on the other GSX-RR en-route to only 14th ahead of Valentino Rossi, while Alex Marquez missed out on a top ten chance with a late crash of his own-dropping him to 16th by the end.
Maverick Vinales continued to make progress familiarising himself with his new Aprilia meanwhile, the Spaniard lapping only 0.863s adrift of Quartararo in 17th-while Jake Dixon also made good ground with his Petronas SRT Yamaha in 22nd only 1.496s slower than the leading benchmark.
