Jack Miller led an all-Ducati top five in the third practice session for the Aragon Grand Prix at the Motorland Aragon circuit, while Marc Marquez will have to navigate Q1.
The lions-share of the test saw the MotoGP contingent performing race runs on old rubber, with only the likes of the recovering Joan Mir electing to try and improve their best times from Friday before the rush of the final minutes of the session began.
Takaaki Nakagami was the first of the expected front-runners to post a time, the LCR Honda man going top with a 1:47.703s before shaving a further tenth-and-a-half-of-a-second from his effort on the next tour.
His time at the top would be short-lived though as Miller managed to string together a stunning single-lap push to bang in a 1:46.992s, the fastest lap of the weekend by well over four-tenths to leave him well clear of the rest.
The Aussie’s time would ultimately go unbeaten as one-by-one his rivals attempted to best it, with factory Ducati team-mate Francesco Bagnaia eventually getting closest as he crossed the stripe 0.030s slower.
Marco Bezzecchi and Enea Bastianini both took advantage of the tow from the back of Bagnaia’s Desmosedici to slide into third and fourth overall at the death, while FP2 leader Jorge Martin also lapped within a tenth of Miller to complete the top five – marking four different Ducati outfits within the five.
Surprisingly it was KTM who would end up best of the rest behind the Bologna Bullets with Brad Binder ending up sixth quickest, the South African going just 0.175s slower than the benchmark ahead of team-mate Miguel Oliveira who was just behind in seventh.
Series leader Fabio Quartararo failed to improve on his earlier effort in the session and thus slipped to eighth in the final reckoning ahead of Nakagami, while Alex Rins claimed the final direct-to-Q2 spot for Suzuki.
This means that several big names will be forced to run in Q1 on Saturday afternoon, the fastest of which was the Aprilia of Aleix Espargaro who missed out on the cut by 0.049s, the Spaniard just ahead of countryman Marquez.
The Honda rider suffered the first crash of his return to racing earlier in the session at Turn 7 after losing the front of his RC213-V on entry to the bend, and then got his timing wrong at the end as he got stuck behind Quartararo, meaning he couldn’t improve upon his own benchmark.
Johann Zarco was another to struggle on his Pramac Ducati in 15th overall, while Maverick Vinales ensured both Aprilia’s would have to run in Q1 as he managed only a lowly 17th.
Mir was 18th ahead of Tech 3 KTM rookie Remy Gardner and factory Yamaha racer Franco Morbidelli, while a crash for RNF Yamaha rider Cal Crutchlow limited him to 21st in the test – albeit only 0.961s away from Miller’s benchmark.
Several other riders also fell victim to the Motorland Aragon in the closing seconds of FP3 alongside the Brit, with the Binder brothers suffering get-off’s at Turn 2 for Brad and Turn 10 for RNF Yamaha’s Darryn respectively, while Rins also went down at Turn 5.
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