Bagnaia decimates lap record to top Emilia Romagna FP3 despite late crash

Francesco Bagnaia smashed Maverick Vinales’ Misano lap record by nearly three-tenths in FP3 to poach the top time heading to Q2, Vinales just a shade back in second.

Bagnaia built himself up across the 45 minute session, not showing everything he had until the closing minutes of the test that would decide the top ten riders that would automatically progress to the Q2 pole shootout session in qualifying on Saturday afternoon.

The times started to head down towards Pol Espargaro’s Brad Binder’s rapid FP2 leading time from Friday, Andrea Dovizioso the first man to break into the 31’s with a 1:31.955, although was quickly displaced by the LCR Honda of Takaaki Nakagami on a 1:31.753.

Bagnaia had saved his best until last though, banging in a 1:31.127 shortly after-the fastest ever two-wheeled lap around the Misano circuit by 0.284 over Vinales’ pole position lap for the San Marino Grand Prix at the same value just a week ago.

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It wouldn’t be a totally squeaky clean session from the MotoGP’s newest rostrum finisher though, as he tucked the front of his GP20 on entry to Turn 6 in the closing seconds while trying to better his time, a crash similar to Fabio Quartararo’s San Marino GP exit on cold tyres late in the encounter.

Vinales himself was the man to get closest to the Pramac Ducati man, lapping just 0.058 down on the Italian to secure himself a direct-to-Q2 spot, while Yamaha compatriots Quartararo and Franco Morbidelli followed shortly behind in third and fourth respectively.

Joan Mir won the accolade of fastest Suzuki with a strong fifth on the timesheets, with Valentino Rossi sixth in the FP3 standings but eighth overall after failing to go quicker than Binder or Nakagami’s best FP2 efforts-bagging them both a Q2 spot in sixth and seventh in the combined times.

Danilo Petrucci was a late improver to secure a solid seventh best time-enough for tenth and the final guaranteed pole shootout berth in the combined standings to boot- while Nakagami was eighth.

Jack Miller’s ninth quickest tour was unfortunately not enough to bag the Aussie a Q2 opportunity, the second Pramac rider 11^th in the combined standings, while tenth fastest Aleix Epsargaro also missed out due to brother Pol’s previous best FP2 being enough to get him through to the pole shootout.  

Dovizioso was another big name to miss out-the factory Ducati man only 14^th in the combined table-while the second Suzuki GSX-RR of the so-far struggling Alex Rins languished down in 16^th.

The sole factory Honda machine of Alex Marquez completed FP3 18^th in the combined times, ahead of only Avintia’s Esteve Rabat and Aprilia’s Bradley Smith.