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Malaysia MotoGP: Vinales leads Marquez and Lorenzo in FP3

Suzuki's Maverick Vinales led MotoGP world champion Marc Marquez in third practice for the Malaysian Grand Prix at Sepang

After Friday's rain, the session was fully dry and Vinales set the pace with Honda's Marquez and Yamaha's Jorge Lorenzo completing a top three covered by just 0.096 seconds.

Vinales was the first rider to move ahead of Marquez's Friday benchmark, recording a 2m01.013s lap just before the halfway mark.

The weekend's maiden 2m00s lap was then turned by Lorenzo, a 2m00.981s, with 13 minutes remaining, and quickly eclipsed by a 2m00.584s from Marquez.

Aleix Espargaro then spent four minutes at the top of the order, before Vinales broke the 2m00s barrier with a time of 1m59.947s with four minutes to go.

Nobody could better that, and Vinales recorded a 1m59.979s after the chequered flag that would also have been good enough to lead the session.

Battling a dose of gastroenteritis, Marquez finished 0.085s behind Vinales, while Lorenzo turned his best time on his penultimate lap.

Valentino Rossi was fourth on the other factory Yamaha, the top four split by 0.160s.

Hector Barbera followed Rossi late on his Avintia Ducati and wound up fifth, while the factory Ducatis of Andrea Iannone and Andrea Dovizioso in sixth and eighth were split by Suzuki's Espargaro, who did not improve after going fastest with eight minutes to go.

Tech3 Yamaha's Pol Espargaro and Aprilia's Alvaro Bautista completed the top 10, securing the final two guaranteed places in the second phase of qualifying.

Bautista did so at the expense of Scott Redding by just 0.037s, the Pramac Ducati rider having been third-fastest on Friday morning but having to settle for 11th ahead of team-mate Danilo Petrucci.

LCR Honda's Cal Crutchlow got the dry session he wanted after a tactical error and rain left him out of the top 10 on Friday.

He recorded a 2m01.213s lap halfway through the 45 minutes, but did not improve thereafter, crashing at Turn 7 after the chequered flag when he looked set to vault up the order.

The Briton finished 13th - 0.135s shy of Bautista - and will have to contest the first phase of qualifying.

PRACTICE THREE RESULTS:

Pos Rider Team Time Gap Laps
1 Maverick Vinales Suzuki 1m59.947s - 19
2 Marc Marquez Honda 2m00.032s 0.085s 18
3 Jorge Lorenzo Yamaha 2m00.043s 0.096s 16
4 Valentino Rossi Yamaha 2m00.107s 0.160s 18
5 Hector Barbera Avintia Ducati 2m00.384s 0.437s 15
6 Andrea Iannone Ducati 2m00.395s 0.448s 17
7 Aleix Espargaro Suzuki 2m00.483s 0.536s 17
8 Andrea Dovizioso Ducati 2m00.723s 0.776s 16
9 Pol Espargaro Tech3 Yamaha 2m01.072s 1.125s 15
10 Alvaro Bautista Aprilia 2m01.078s 1.131s 18
11 Scott Redding Pramac Ducati 2m01.115s 1.168s 15
12 Danilo Petrucci Pramac Ducati 2m01.167s 1.220s 15
13 Cal Crutchlow LCR Honda 2m01.213s 1.266s 16
14 Bradley Smith Tech3 Yamaha 2m01.255s 1.308s 17
15 Eugene Laverty Aspar Ducati 2m01.319s 1.372s 16
16 Stefan Bradl Aprilia 2m01.352s 1.405s 17
17 Jack Miller Marc VDS Honda 2m01.716s 1.769s 15
18 Yonny Hernandez Aspar Ducati 2m02.197s 2.250s 12
19 Tito Rabat Marc VDS Honda 2m02.237s 2.290s 18
20 Loris Baz Avintia Ducati 2m02.729s 2.782s 15
21 Hiroshi Aoyama Honda 2m02.830s 2.883s 18

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