Ducati's Andrea Iannone stays on top in third Mugello practice

Iannone led the way on Friday afternoon by nearly half a second and backed that up with another hot lap on Saturday morning at Mugello.

The Italian was the last of the frontrunners to improve on his Friday time, and had dropped down the order as Marc Marquez set the early pace with a 1m47.579s, 0.117 seconds faster than Iannone's benchmark.

The final runs signalled a typical flurry of improvements, with Yamaha's Jorge Lorenzo moving to the top with four minutes to go, with a time of 1m47.564s.

Marquez then improved to a 1m47.273s on his Honda, before Iannone underlined his strong form.

His lap of 1m46.991s was the first of the weekend beneath the 1m47s barrier, and good enough to lead the session by 0.089s over Marquez, who improved again at the death.

Suzuki's Maverick Vinales jumped up to third with his final lap, while Yonny Hernandez was a standout fourth on his Aspar Ducati GP14.2.

Lorenzo wound up fifth, ahead of Danilo Petrucci, Bradley Smith and Valentino Rossi.

The local favourite was the first of the frontrunners to make a move late in the session, moving up to second on his Yamaha with seven minutes to go, but was then shuffled down the order, albeit only 0.147s slower than team-mate Lorenzo.

Dani Pedrosa was ninth, while Ducati wildcard Michele Pirro booked the final spot in Q2, denying LCR Honda's Cal Crutchlow by just 0.006s.

Battling a neck injury, Andrea Dovizioso was 12th and also missed out on an automatic Q2 spot, as 0.948s covered the top 13 riders.

Marc VDS rider Tito Rabat's weekend is over, the rookie fracturing his left collarbone in a crash at Turn 13 at the start of the session.

PRACTICE THREE TIMES