MotoGP Valencia: Marquez tops FP3 but Dovizioso struggles

Honda rider Marquez took the lead early in the session and established a clear advantage with a lap time of 1m30.939s.

He had a seven-tenth gap over Andrea Iannone at the time, but as the session progressed, Johann Zarco took over as Marquez's main challenger, getting as close 0.002s with five minutes to go.

Marquez then went even quicker, and his 1m30.255s surpassed Jorge Lorenzo's Friday benchmark.

Tech 3 Yamaha's Zarco and Suzuki man Iannone ended up in second and third with identical lap times, as Lorenzo grabbed fourth.

Alex Rins was fifth on the second Suzuki, followed by Ducati test rider Michele Pirro and Jack Miller, who is spending his last race weekend with Marc VDS Honda.

Valentino Rossi had a low-key session and looked set to miss out on a Q2 spot until a last-minute improvement that put him eighth, ahead of Dani Pedrosa, just as the chequered flag fell.

Those riders riders all booked a place in Q2, as did 16th-fastest Dovizioso, who managed eighth in the combined times on the strength of a strong Friday lap.

Maverick Vinales was only 13th in FP3, and must battle through Q1 along with Honda and Ducati satellite riders Cal Crutchlow and Danilo Petrucci.

The session featured five crashes, two from Tito Rabat (Marc VDS Honda) and one each for Aleix Espargaro (Aprilia), Miller, and Scott Redding (Pramac Ducati).

FP3 times