2019 Barcelona MotoGP FP3 Result: Rins Shines On Home Playground | MotoMatters.com

Submitted by Zara Daniela on Sat, 2019-06-15 09:15

The cloudless sky and significantly cleaner track surface meant that it took no time whatsoever for Marc Marquez to bring down Friday’s benchmark before things settled for long runs on different combinations of the soft and medium compounds almost throughout the field. Fabio Quartararo brought some excitement in the final 15 minutes with some fresh rubber helping him help himself to the first 1:39 time of the weekend and laying down the gauntlet ahead of the top ten shoothout. Alex Rins wasn’t particularly impressed and swiftly went a couple hundredths of a second faster.

The usual shootout left it a bit late to bring the excitement after a difficult five minutes for the Petronas squad brought out yellow flags, Franco Morbidelli suffering a vicious highside in turn 13 and Quartararo taking his first gentle tumble in the premier class at turn two. That left rivals with only a couple of flying laps to make a difference and to Suzuki’s joy, they failed to dethrone the leader, Rins still leading the way at the checkered flag. Despite his late tumble, Quartararo kept second position but was nowhere near as happy as Cal Crutchlow to finally see the top three in such a close field.

The factory Yamahas enjoyed some time in the sunshine, Valentino Rossi returning to the garage with a big smile on his face after a welcome fourth position, less than two tenths off the lead and three hundredths ahead of teammate Maverick Viñales. Andrea Dovizioso in sixth left it really late to claim sixth as top Ducati, with Pol Espargaro making the KTM a familiar occurrence in the top ten.

The last time Danilo Petrucci and Marc Marquez took a checkered flag so close to one another it was for the win in Mugello rather than eighth and ninth in FP3 but both riders had a less than ideal morning. The Italian was one of the last men to improve on his Friday benchmark, while Marquez didn’t quite make the best of his time attack and had some arms to wave in his teammate's direction. Meanwhile, Jorge Lorenzo made good on his promise that the trip to Japan would make a difference and managed to secure the final Q2 spot available, leaving Jack Miller, Takaaki Nakagami, Morbidelli and Joan Mir to fight off Aleix Espargaro and Pecco Bagnaia in Q1.

Results:

Pos.	Num.	Rider	Bike	Time	Gap 1st	Prev.
1	42	Alex RINS	Suzuki	1'39.547
2	20	Fabio QUARTARARO	Yamaha	1'39.583	0.036	0.036
3	35	Cal CRUTCHLOW	Honda	1'39.711	0.164	0.128
4	46	Valentino ROSSI	Yamaha	1'39.722	0.175	0.011
5	12	Maverick VIÑALES	Yamaha	1'39.756	0.209	0.034
6	4	Andrea DOVIZIOSO	Ducati	1'39.769	0.222	0.013
7	44	Pol ESPARGARO	KTM	1'39.857	0.310	0.088
8	9	Danilo PETRUCCI	Ducati	1'39.918	0.371	0.061
9	93	Marc MARQUEZ	Honda	1'39.923	0.376	0.005
10	99	Jorge LORENZO	Honda	1'39.949	0.402	0.026
11	43	Jack MILLER	Ducati	1'39.967	0.420	0.018
12	30	Takaaki NAKAGAMI	Honda	1'40.067	0.520	0.100
13	21	Franco MORBIDELLI	Yamaha	1'40.079	0.532	0.012
14	36	Joan MIR	Suzuki	1'40.158	0.611	0.079
15	41	Aleix ESPARGARO	Aprilia	1'40.366	0.819	0.208
16	29	Andrea IANNONE	Aprilia	1'40.454	0.907	0.088
17	63	Francesco BAGNAIA	Ducati	1'40.582	1.035	0.128
18	17	Karel ABRAHAM	Ducati	1'40.761	1.214	0.179
19	5	Johann ZARCO	KTM	1'40.942	1.395	0.181
20	53	Tito RABAT	Ducati	1'40.996	1.449	0.054
21	38	Bradley SMITH	Aprilia	1'41.023	1.476	0.027
22	88	Miguel OLIVEIRA	KTM	1'41.102	1.555	0.079
23	50	Sylvain GUINTOLI	Suzuki	1'41.115	1.568	0.013
24	55	Hafizh SYAHRIN	KTM	1'41.498	1.951	0.383