MotoGP Austria: Iannone fastest in FP3, Marquez crashes heavily

Riding with a rib injury, Iannone continued Ducati's strong run at the Red Bull Ring and moved ahead of team-mate Andrea Dovizoso with a late time of 1m23.327s.

Iannone's second- and third-fastest laps would have also been good enough for top spot, and he wound up 0.290 seconds clear of Dovizioso - seventh in FP3 as he focused on race work - on the combined practice order.

But eyes were on the Honda garage for the bulk of the session.

Having the 10th-fastest time on Friday, Marquez had improved by eight tenths on that effort to lead the session early, but he crashed heavily at Turn 3 (traditionally known as Turn 2 in car racing), 10 minutes in.

He appeared to be caught out by his team-mate Dani Pedrosa running ahead on the road, slowly and wide into the corner, and narrowly missed Pedrosa's bike, high-siding as he took evasive action to the outside.

The Spaniard was thrown onto the asphalt run-off area and got up gingerly, nursing his left collarbone and arm, and Honda reported that his left shoulder had been dislocated.

Crucially, Marquez's early time was still good enough for ninth and a guaranteed spot in the second phase of qualifying, with Pedrosa 10th to also scrape in.

Suzuki's Maverick Vinales was again Ducati's closest challenger, his 1m23.755s lap 0.428s slower than Iannone's, while Jorge Lorenzo enjoyed his most-competitive session in recent times with fourth on his Yamaha.

Scott Redding nabbed a Q2 place for Pramac Ducati with fifth on his final lap, just ahead of Valentino Rossi.

Like Redding, Aleix Espargaro jumped up the order late and into seventh, the Suzuki rider cleared to continue despite injuring his hands on Friday.

Hector Barbera was eighth, while a late crash at Turn 4 proved costly for Cal Crutchlow.

The LCR Honda rider fell out of the top 10 in the closing minutes and will have to contest the first phase of qualifying, while Marc VDS' Jack Miller had a minor Turn 3 crash on his way to 19th.

FP3 TIMES