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Lewis Duncan

MotoGP Italian GP: Bagnaia tops FP3 after a crash, Marquez down in 21st

Despite its favourite status at Mugello this weekend, FP3 got off to a fairly disastrous start for the Italian manufacturer.

In the early stages Gresini rookie Fabio Di Giannantonio ran off into the Turn 1 gravel at the same time VR46’s Marco Bezzecchi did, with the latter crashing.

At the same time factory Ducati rider Jack Miller was forced to stop at Turn 8 with a technical issue, while team-mate Bagnaia crashed at Turn 12 not long after – the Italian’s GP22 smashing its way to land on top of the tyre barrier.

Pramac’s Jorge Martin would also have a crash with just under half an hour of the 45-minute session remaining.

Improvements on the combined order were few and far between for much of FP3, with no headline moves inside the all-important top 10 spots pivotal to securing a direct Q2 qualifying place coming until the final 15 minutes.

Miller was the first rider to go for a soft tyre time attack around halfway through the session, but couldn’t hook a lap together as he continually lost time through the third sector.

Aprilia’s Maverick Vinales would be the first rider to make a significant improvement, as he went to third with a 1m46.121s.

Suzuki’s Joan Mir moved into the top 10 moments later, which shoved championship leader Fabio Quartararo out of the Q2 places briefly.

Fabio Quartararo, Yamaha Factory Racing (Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images)

Though he would get back up to ninth after his first soft tyre run, a big mistake going through Turn 8 in the latter stages left the Yamaha rider visibly frustrated having felt on Friday that his form was completely “opposite” to how it was in 2021 when he won at Mugello.

While this was happening, Bagnaia was lighting up the timing screens and produced a 1m45.393s with 11 minutes to go to move almost half a second clear of the field on the combined times.

That lap would see him safely through into Q2 and kept him top of the pile ahead of Friday pacesetter Aleix Espargaro, who improved to a 1m45.669s on his Aprilia.

Luca Marini completed the top three on his VR46 Ducati, with Pramac’s Johann Zarco, VR46’s Bezzecchi, Le Mans race winner Enea Bastianini on the Gresini Ducati – who crashed at the final corner while on his final lap - and Pramac’s Martin following him.

The next non-Ducati was Pol Espargaro on the factory team Honda in eighth ahead of LCR’s Takaaki Nakagami, while Quartararo scraped through to Q2 in 10th by just 0.028s from Vinales.

Neither Suzuki rider could hold onto a place in Q2, with Alex Rins 12th and Mir 16th, while Miller failed to get his factory team Ducati into the top 10 in a disappointing 15th.

Joan Mir, Team Suzuki MotoGP (Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images)

No KTM rider has made it directly into Q2, with Miguel Oliveira the best of them in 14th, while six-time MotoGP world champion Marquez on the sister factory Honda ended the session 1.184s off the pace down in 21st.

RNF Racing rookie Darryn Binder crashed at the last corner just seconds after Bastianini did, with the incident placed under investigation as it may have happened while yellow flags were still showing.

Qualifying for the 2022 MotoGP Italian Grand Prix will get underway at 2:10pm local time (1:10pm BST).

MotoGP Italian GP - FP3 results

Cla Rider Bike Laps Time Gap Interval
1 Italy Francesco Bagnaia Ducati 16 1'45.393    
2 Spain Aleix Espargaro Aprilia 17 1'45.669 0.276 0.276
3 Italy Luca Marini Ducati 20 1'45.762 0.369 0.093
4 France Johann Zarco Ducati 18 1'45.767 0.374 0.005
5 Italy Marco Bezzecchi Ducati 17 1'45.853 0.460 0.086
6 Italy Enea Bastianini Ducati 15 1'45.860 0.467 0.007
7 Spain Jorge Martin Ducati 15 1'45.879 0.486 0.019
8 Spain Pol Espargaro Honda 17 1'45.880 0.487 0.001
9 Japan Takaaki Nakagami Honda 18 1'45.999 0.606 0.119
10 France Fabio Quartararo Yamaha 20 1'46.032 0.639 0.033
11 Spain Maverick Viñales Aprilia 17 1'46.060 0.667 0.028
12 Spain Alex Rins Suzuki 20 1'46.064 0.671 0.004
13 Italy Fabio Di Giannantonio Ducati 19 1'46.116 0.723 0.052
14 Portugal Miguel Oliveira KTM 20 1'46.154 0.761 0.038
15 Australia Jack Miller Ducati 11 1'46.169 0.776 0.015
16 Spain Joan Mir Suzuki 20 1'46.337 0.944 0.168
17 Spain Alex Marquez Honda 19 1'46.363 0.970 0.026
18 Italy Franco Morbidelli Yamaha 21 1'46.483 1.090 0.120
19 South Africa Brad Binder KTM 18 1'46.500 1.107 0.017
20 Italy Michele Pirro Ducati 16 1'46.557 1.164 0.057
21 Spain Marc Marquez Honda 15 1'46.577 1.184 0.020
22 Spain Raúl Fernández KTM 16 1'46.739 1.346 0.162
23 Australia Remy Gardner KTM 17 1'46.939 1.546 0.200
24 South Africa Darryn Binder Yamaha 18 1'46.963 1.570 0.024
25 Italy Andrea Dovizioso Yamaha 19 1'47.023 1.630 0.060
26 Italy Lorenzo Savadori Aprilia 14 1'47.046 1.653 0.023
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