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Sachsenring MotoGP: Honda's Marquez leads after frantic end to FP3

Honda's Marc Marquez set the pace in Saturday morning's third MotoGP practice session at Sachsenring, leading Yamaha rider Maverick Vinales by nearly two tenths of a second

Marquez's best lap of 1m20.745s was the fastest time of the weekend so far, and came in a frenetic final few minutes of FP3 as riders searched for a place in the top 10 to qualifying automatically for Saturday afternoon's Q2 qualifying session.

He impressively bettered Aleix Espargaro's previous benchmark by half a second and while Vinales was able to close the gap to 0.170 seconds before the chequered flag, Marquez stayed on top.

Jonas Folger took third, the Tech 3 Yamaha rider having led the majority of the session until being demoted by Vinales and then Espargaro during the final 10 minutes, before a late improvement of his own in the final minutes.

Aprilia's Espargaro was fourth, ahead of LCR Honda rider Cal Crutchlow and Valentino Rossi.

Rossi endured a second failure of the weekend during the session after a stoppage a day earlier in FP1, as his Yamaha bike stopped again at the beginning of the third practice.

The Italian managed to rejoin soon after his issue and, while he spent most of the running outside of the top 10, jumped up to sixth with a late effort.

Ducati factory duo Jorge Lorenzo and Andrea Dovizioso were seventh and eighth respectively, while the second factory Honda of Dani Pedrosa and Alvaro Bautista were the final two riders to guarantee a spot in Q2.

Pedrosa was one of several riders to fall, dropping his bike at Turn 1.

Karel Abraham and Johann Zarco were the latest riders to fall at the fast, downhill right-handed Turn 11 this weekend.

As a result, Zarco will have to contest the Q1 qualifying session to stand a chance of fighting for pole, and will be joined by the likes of Danilo Petrucci and FP2 pacesetter Hector Barbera.

Marc VDS rider Jack Miller, Pramac Ducati's Scott Redding and the Suzukis of Alex Rins (16th) and Andrea Iannone (19th) also failed to make the Q2 cut.

THIRD PRACTICE TIMES:

Pos Rider Team Bike Time Gap Laps
1 Marc Marquez Honda Honda 1m20.745s - 33
2 Maverick Vinales Yamaha Yamaha 1m20.915s 0.170s 28
3 Jonas Folger Tech3 Yamaha Yamaha 1m21.198s 0.453s 25
4 Aleix Espargaro Aprilia Aprilia 1m21.209s 0.464s 25
5 Cal Crutchlow LCR Honda Honda 1m21.275s 0.530s 28
6 Valentino Rossi Yamaha Yamaha 1m21.311s 0.566s 22
7 Jorge Lorenzo Ducati Ducati 1m21.373s 0.628s 26
8 Andrea Dovizioso Ducati Ducati 1m21.422s 0.677s 23
9 Dani Pedrosa Honda Honda 1m21.480s 0.735s 28
10 Alvaro Bautista Aspar Ducati Ducati 1m21.497s 0.752s 27
11 Tito Rabat MVDS Honda Honda 1m21.608s 0.863s 28
12 Danilo Petrucci Pramac Ducati Ducati 1m21.623s 0.878s 25
13 Hector Barbera Avintia Ducati Ducati 1m21.658s 0.913s 28
14 Jack Miller MVDS Honda Honda 1m21.835s 1.090s 28
15 Scott Redding Pramac Ducati Ducati 1m21.897s 1.152s 23
16 Alex Rins Suzuki Suzuki 1m21.925s 1.180s 29
17 Johann Zarco Tech3 Yamaha Yamaha 1m21.934s 1.189s 27
18 Pol Espargaro KTM KTM 1m21.945s 1.200s 27
19 Andrea Iannone Suzuki Suzuki 1m22.018s 1.273s 28
20 Loris Baz Avintia Ducati Ducati 1m22.089s 1.344s 24
21 Bradley Smith KTM KTM 1m22.350s 1.605s 23
22 Mika Kallio KTM KTM 1m22.380s 1.635s 30
23 Sam Lowes Aprilia Aprilia 1m22.569s 1.824s 17
24 Karel Abraham Aspar Ducati Ducati 1m22.724s 1.979s 24


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