MotoGP Qatar: Zarco leads final practice Vinales to contest Q1

Tech3 Yamaha rider Johann Zarco set the pace in a largely meaningless third practice session for the MotoGP season opener in Qatar, while Valentino Rossi crashed.

Lap times in the daytime session were well off the pace of those set on Friday evening in FP2, meaning the combined top 10 order that determines who progresses automatically to Q2 remains unchanged.

Andrea Dovizioso's 1m54.361s second practice benchmark therefore went unchallenged, with Danilo Petrucci and Alex Rins completing the overall top three on the strength on their times from second practice.

Jorge Lorenzo, Andrea Iannone, Marc Marquez, Dani Pedrosa, Cal Crutchlow, Rossi and Zarco are the remaining riders who will advance directly to Q2.

On the other hand, Maverick Vinales will have to fight his way through Q1 for only the third time since he joined Yamaha after ending up 11th on combined times.

Zarco was the sole rider to break the 1m55s barrier in FP3, recording a 1m54.966s at the tail end of the session to go quickest 0.497 seconds from Pramac Ducati rider Jack Miller.

The Australian stayed 14th in the overall times however, meaning he joins Vinales in Q1.

Petrucci, Marquez and Iannone completed the top five times, with Pedrosa the only other rider to get within a second of Zarco's best lap.

Rossi was ninth fastest after an eventful session that began with a crash at Turn 5 in the opening 10 minutes of the session.

He also had to tour back to the pits in the closing stages as the bottom part of his Yamaha's bodywork drooped and began to scrape against the track.

Avintia Ducati's Tito Rabat was the only other rider to crash, taking a late tumble at Turn 14.

The only riders to set personal best times of the weekend in FP3 were Rabat's team-mate Xavier Simeon and Alvaro Bautista (Nieto Ducati), but both remain at the bottom of the combined timesheets.

FP3 times

Pos	Rider	Team	Bike	Time	Gap	Laps
1	Johann Zarco	Tech3 Yamaha	Yamaha	1m54.966s	-	15
2	Jack Miller	Pramac Ducati	Ducati	1m55.463s	0.497s	16
3	Danilo Petrucci	Pramac Ducati	Ducati	1m55.668s	0.702s	10
4	Marc Marquez	Honda	Honda	1m55.750s	0.784s	18
5	Andrea Iannone	Suzuki	Suzuki	1m55.777s	0.811s	15
6	Dani Pedrosa	Honda	Honda	1m55.830s	0.864s	17
7	Andrea Dovizioso	Ducati	Ducati	1m55.980s	1.014s	10
8	Jorge Lorenzo	Ducati	Ducati	1m56.009s	1.043s	17
9	Valentino Rossi	Yamaha	Yamaha	1m56.049s	1.083s	13
10	Cal Crutchlow	LCR Honda	Honda	1m56.058s	1.092s	15
11	Aleix Espargaro	Aprilia	Aprilia	1m56.131s	1.165s	16
12	Pol Espargaro	KTM	KTM	1m56.260s	1.294s	15
13	Alex Rins	Suzuki	Suzuki	1m56.286s	1.320s	16
14	Tito Rabat	Avintia Ducati	Ducati	1m56.310s	1.344s	12
15	Hafizh Syahrin	Tech3 Yamaha	Yamaha	1m56.604s	1.638s	17
16	Franco Morbidelli	MVDS Honda	Honda	1m56.779s	1.813s	16
17	Alvaro Bautista	Aspar Ducati	Ducati	1m56.859s	1.893s	18
18	Scott Redding	Aprilia	Aprilia	1m56.875s	1.909s	13
19	Thomas Luthi	MVDS Honda	Honda	1m57.046s	2.080s	17
20	Maverick Vinales	Yamaha	Yamaha	1m57.118s	2.152s	14
21	Karel Abraham	Aspar Ducati	Ducati	1m57.146s	2.180s	15
22	Bradley Smith	KTM	KTM	1m57.208s	2.242s	16
23	Xavier Simeon	Avintia Ducati	Ducati	1m57.519s	2.553s	14
24	Takaaki Nakagami	LCR Honda	Honda	1m57.688s	2.722s	17