What went down in third Misano MotoGP practice

Jack Miller headed a Ducati 1-2 in the third practice session of the MotoGP weekend at the Misano circuit.

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Key moments:

> Miller 0.071s clear of Bagnaia
> All title contenders in Q2
> Late crashes and yellow flags thwart Q2 hopefuls

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Rain had been anticipated for much of the weekend, and drops indeed appeared just as late-session qualifying simulation runs began, threatening to leave those outside the combined classification top 10 out of Q2 without the last-gasp chance they would have been banking on to rectify the situation.

Yet the track had stayed just about good enough for riders to improve, and the factory Ducati duo did just that, duelling for first place until Miller finally bested Francesco Bagnaia with a 1m31.296s.

Aprilia rider Maverick Vinales set the third-best time, three tenths off the pace, having moved right up the order at the chequered flag.

This moved him past Gresini Ducati’s Enea Bastianini, before both then got their laptimes deleted for yellow flag infringements. However, both still booked Q2 spots, Bastianini doing so on the strength of his Friday-topping time.

The deletions promoted points leader Fabio Quartararo (Yamaha) and Alex Rins (Suzuki) into the top four. Advancing into Q2 alongside them were the likes of Johann Zarco (Pramac Ducati) and Aleix Espargaro (Aprilia), both by virtue of laptimes they’d set on Friday.

Quartararo’s team-mate Franco Morbidelli’s bid to end his Q2 drought looked set to fall short in heartbreaking fashion as Marco Bezzecchi (VR46 Ducati) appeared to have grabbed the final automatic Q2 spot by setting an identical laptime earlier.

Yet Bezzecchi was also pinged with a laptime deletion for yellow flags, opening the door for Morbidelli.

And RNF Aprilia-bound KTM rider Miguel Oliveira then caught a break, too. Having crashed late on, he was shuffled out of the combined top 10 by Jorge Martin (Pramac Ducati), but Martin then incurred a laptime deletion, allowing Oliveira to make Q2 by 0.001s over Bezzecchi.

Among those missing out on Q2 was Pol Espargaro (Honda), who was on course to make it until he had a fast crash at the final corner in the closing minutes.

There were also crashes for Fabio Di Giannantonio (Gresini Ducati) and Takaaki Nakagami (LCR Honda).

Suzuki’s Joan Mir stand-in Kazuki Watanabe was again last, but did manage to comfortably clear the 105% pace cut-off and should be allowed to run in qualifying and the race.

Practice 3 Results